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The future of statehood

What results can be expected from these three modules after a decade of research in this kind of Collaborative Research Center? Overall, we expect to gain new insights into the causes and effects of the transformations of statehood. On the one hand, these will contribute to a reconceptualisation of one of the basic theoretical building blocks in the political and social sciences, namely the nation state, and thereby to overcoming methodological nationalism. On the other hand, the knowledge gained will be useful in political practice, in the institutional reorganisation of governance structures to promote peace, legal protection, democracy and welfare.

In the "state" sciences the national constellation was connected to theoretical and conceptual perspectives that were based on methodological nationalism. As an ideal-typical premise, methodological nationalism considers nation states and their governments the basic units of analysis in the social and political sciences. Methodological nationalism, thus understood, differs from normative nationalism, which accords each nation the right to independent self-determination according to its cultural particularities. Methodological nationalism assumes this normative claim as a social-ontological given, and at the same time makes it the most important cleavage and organisational principle within the political sphere. It assumes that mankind separates naturally into a limited number of nations, which become organized, internally, as DCIS and separated, externally, from other states, particularly those with a different political order. Furthermore, methodological nationalism assumes that the external demarcation of and competition between states are fundamental categories underlying all political organisation. Institutions beyond states, as well as mechanisms of internal self-regulation, are ignored. This double premise of methodological nationalism also structures empirical observations. This can be seen, for example, in statistical units of measurement, which are almost always based on national classifications and collected by state statistical offices with large budgets. Institutionalization thus helps this 'national' world view resist empirical refutation.

A theory of politics in the post-national constellation must break down the "selectivity of tested perspectives" (Mayntz 2002); what is necessary is a reconceptualisation of political processes that will allow for a liberation from nation-state categories. Politics in the post-national constellation arises from the interaction of different political levels and parallel processes of privatisation. Under these conditions, strict divisions between inside and outside and public and private spheres can no longer be maintained. This serves as a framework for our analysis. In order to arrive at generalizable statements, however, one must also determine the constitutive characteristics of politics in the post-national constellation and combine these in a theoretical model:

• How can the organisational principle of a reconfigured post-national statehood be understood
• What actors, with what kind of functional differentiation, will be central to a post-nationally reconfigured statehood?
• What kinds of preferences and patterns of political process will dominate politics?

It is to be expected that, with regard to both national and international politics, the answers to these questions will reveal significant differences with the currently predominant national constellation. The Collaborative Research Center aims at a new understanding of statehood that will have major implications for theory-building in all the "state" sciences.

The findings of the Collaborative Research Center will also likely be of relevance for political practice because in a post-nationally reconfigured statehood, not only political processes but also policies may be significantly changed. Whether basic social values like peace, legal protection, democracy and welfare can be promoted in a similar way as in the national constellation remains an open question. However, the Collaborative Research Center should provide first indications as to what kinds of institutional reorganisation could affect the post-national re-configuration in such a way that the aforementioned basic social values would remain attainable into the distant future.

Read on: The Research Center