[Stephan Leibfried, Michael Zürn eds., Transformations of the State? (2005), Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, ISBN: 0-521-67238-4, pp.224]

A. Introduction

There seems to be no end to the debate over which entity might adequately compare to the nation state. The nature of the state’s influence, its role and defining characteristics have experienced great change through the years and it is increasingly evident that the current form and direction of that change is neither certain, nor consistent. The book Transformations of the State? edited by Stephan Leibfried and Michael Zürn maps out this evolution of the state by examining the OECD nation state’s functions from its high point in the ‘Golden Age’ of the 1960s and 70s to its uncertain future in the face of global and domestic challenges. The book tracks four critical dimensions of the nation state: resource, law, legitimacy and welfare and takes a reading of the current condition of these dimensions in the modern nation state in order to elicit answers about its fate and survival. Using the metaphor of the “fabric” of the nation state, the book follows the potential unravelling of the once tightly woven strands of the state and asks if the future will see the various elements of the state going off in all directions.

The editors of the book, Leibfried and Zürn, professors of political science, are two of the founders of the TranState national Research Centre at the University of Bremen, a collaborative research centre, which since 2003 has been committed to the study of the changing dynamics between international and domestic politics and public and private governance. The researchers at the centre study the change processes of the state, the reasons for them and the effects the changes might have in order to fill a dearth of work completed in those areas.

Transformations of the State? is composed of nine distinct chapters, each written by one or more different individuals who are directors of or investigators for...