Toward A New Sociology of the State - On Brubaker,Roger

Abstract

This article discusses Roger Brubaker's contribution to a new sociology of the state, which considers the state not as a strategic actor or a territorial organization but as a culturally bounded membership association. After pointing out the novelty of Brubaker's approach in light of previous theories of the state, I address some of its shortcomings--a formalistic concept of citizenship, an exclusive focus on elites, a mechanistic fashioning of the relationship between ideas and interests, and no mention of the pending Europeanization of citizenship.