Review: Nation & State the State in Transition
| Published date | 01 March 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209605100112 |
| Author | Deborah Stienstra |
| Date | 01 March 1996 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS/NATION
&
STATE
161
NATION
&
STATE
THE
STATE
IN
TRANSITION
Reimagining
political
space
Edited
by
Joseph
A.
Camilleri,
Anthony
P.
Jarvis,
and
Albert
J.
Paolini
Boulder
co:
Lynne
Rienner,
1995,
245pp,
US$4o.oo
The
State
in
Transition
has
a
bold
goal
-
to
reconstitute
and
re-imagine
theories
of
the
state
especially
in
international
relations.
Using
broadly
defined
postmodernist
approaches
as
a
common
framework,
the
13
articles
set
out
how
we
might
re-imagine
the
state
in
its
local,
national,
and
global
spaces
and
how
this
changes
our
theorizing
about
the
state.
Its
success
as
a
collection
is
in
establishing
a
wider
and more
holistic
terrain
for
discussions
about
the
state;
its
weakness
is
a
lack
of
consis-
tency in
method
and
only
limited
ability
to
build
a
broader
framework
from
the
pieces.
Two
of
the
most
significant
essays
set
the
boundaries
for
the book.
Walker
argues
that
international
relations
theory
reflects
the
'discourse
of
limits'
found
in
the
practice
of
sovereignty.
'Specifically,
because
states
are,
because
states
monopolize
what
it
means
to
be
political
and
where
one
can
be
political,
it
is
not
possible to make
claims
about
world
politics,
except
as
a
way
of
describing
relations among
states.
For
pol-
itics
supposedly
occurs
within'
(p
29).
The
state in
transition means
for
Walker
'that
the
state
is
no longer
able
to
claim
to
resolve
all
ontolog-
ical
contradictions
in
space
and
time'
(p
35).
Camilleri
suggests
that
to
deal
with
these
contradictions,
theories
need
to
address
the
state
in
its
multiple
contexts,
specifically
in
its
relations
to
the
economy,
civil
society,
and
the
nation.
He argues
these
'interconnected
dualities
may
help
to
illuminate
the
confused
pattern
of
integration and fragmenta-
tion
that
is
hallmark
of
an
emerging
multicentric
world'
(p
213).
Thus
it
is
not
sufficient
to
examine
only
the
interconnected
civil
societies
or
the
system
of
states
to
explain the
world
system.
We
must
examine
these
three
sets
of
interrelationships
to
explain
the
state
in
transition.
Essays
by
Seth,
Veit-Brause,
and
Lawson
explore
the relationships
between
nationalism
and
the
state,
arguing
in
part
that
there
is
a
grow-
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