The political significance of the state will not be lost, no matter how insignificant international borders are apparently reduced to by a thriving and increasingly omnipotent global economy. Expansion and fragmentation of political power are the attributes of fundamental political change. Even if the state delegates its own authority and internationalisation inhibits autonomy, the state simultaneously finds new modes of cooperation and coordination which takes place both at its own national and international levels. This it does to strengthen its power and autonomy. The underlying thread that runs through the nine essays in this volume emphasise that the perception about a progressive weakening of the nation state does not prove tenable.

Political decisionmaking is becoming opaque and the mechanisms of democratic control appear to be eroding. The scope and character of political participation too are changing fast. New networks are emerging as links between various decisionmaking levels. Support for national society is on a downswing. Efficacy of national governance structures is declining. The new keywords that govern political change in advanced societies are expansion, individualisation, localisation, internationalisation and fragmentation. The key elements of political change -- political philosophy, international relations and comparative politics -- are now seen closely from the perspective of the transformation of the nation state. The nation state is being understood to be just another form of governance.

In 'Ringing the Changes: Mutations in the Idea of Political Change', Graham Lock analyses the ideology of change and some of its cognates: progress, development and revolution. Lock says the distance between political margins has narrowed down. Those who believe that change should proceed rapidly are pitted against those who want only a more gentle pace. Only a minuscule proportion deny the necessity of social and political change. Lock talks about liberalism, contractualism and narcissism, and then tries to find out whether there can be limits to political change. He sees globalisation as "no more than a tendentious description of the dynamic situation of a world entirely carved up into a pattern of competing but at the same time cooperating nation states, grouped into temporary or more or less permanent alliances, a world whose 'civil societies' function, as they always have done, internationally, perhaps even more internationally". He dismisses the idea of a global society, structured by post-liberal and post-democratic institutions since they leave the nation state intact.

Wil Hout and Robert Lieshout, in 'The Limits of Theory: Detecting Contemporary Global Change and Predicting the Future of the States System', explore the extent to which a systems approach to international relations can help get a grip on the changes that are, and have been taking place in the international system. They focus on two crucial changes characterising the contemporary world order which can have far-reaching consequences for the existing Westphalian states system: the end of the bipolar structure of the international political system following the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; and the increase in the level of interdependence among national economies. Hout and Lieshout first discuss relevant theoretical notions provided by the systems approach to international relations, then substantiate the presumed changes with empirical data. They infer that there are not viable contenders to the state -- "there do not exist institutional solutions which are at least as 'effective and efficient' as the state in dealing with the problems posed by the increase of interaction capacity.

Kees van Kersbergen takes a comparative perspective and examines the challenges that economic internationalisation and European integration pose to national political systems in 'National Political Systems: The Changing Boundaries of Politics?' Politics is crossing frontiers: national borders since national governments and parliaments are transferring competencies and means to international organisations; and imaginary borders since it is not necessarily democratically-elected politicians anymore who take political decisions. Van Kersbergen disputes apocalyptic analyses, and maintains that the concepts of 'politics', 'state', and 'sovereignty' remain politically relevant and analytically effectual. He speaks of the challenges of globalisation and European integration, and reasons that what is widely interpreted as the emasculation of the power of the nation state is actually a transformation of the manner in which state power is exercised.

The issue of theoretical consequences of the possibly changing forms in which political power will be exercised are taken up by Marcel Wissenburg in the future in 'Changing Shape, Changing Form: Liberal Democracy without the Classical State'. The power of the nation state, he holds, is fragmenting, and creating a politically plural world. There is a catch here. The state has reserved for itself the legal authority to regain what it loses or delegates, but the price of retreating from international cooperative structure may be too high. Mainstream, liberal, political theory is to a large extent predicated on the existence of a sovereign state as a necessary condition for the existence and protection of a society with liberal democratic values. He says, "The nation state itself is historically contingent; if it changes shape, it may still in some way retain the form of a 'polis', a more or less self-sustained and self-sustainable scheme of cooperation with a unifying political structure exactly mapping society.

In 'International Organizations as Sources of Political Change', Bob Reinalda discusses whether, how and to what extent international organisations can be relevant actors vis-à-vis political change and the transformation of the nation state. In terms of evolution, international organisations are sources of support for nation states adapting to economic expansion. In terms of functioning, their role is more passive: they are sources of stability rather than sources of change. Organisations are status quo oriented and do not go beyond the facilitation of incremental change. In terms of governance, international organisations are the arenas in which the continuous interplay between national and international policymaking takes place, where long-term change is articulated and channelled by various representatives of governments and, to a lesser extent, by representatives of international organisations and private actors.

Markus Haverland contends that among all manifestations of internationalisation, the economic, legal and political integration taking place inside the European Union (EU) presents the most visible and direct challenge to national policy autonomy. In 'The Impact of European Integration on Domestic Political Change and National Autonomy', he points out that though EU member states have delegated authority to the European level on matters relating to free movement of goods, services, labour and capital (once their respective sole domain), they still play a dominant role in the framing of rules and guard their national interests as best as they can. The loss of state authority is the theme of Anton Weenink and Aad Correlje's 'The Irrelevance of Globalization: The State and the Energy Sector in Russia's Transformation'. Hans Slomp shows in 'European Tripartism: Convergence in Topics, Persistent Divergence in Decision Making' that globalisation and the demand for labour flexibility have motivated European governments to display more rather than less initiative in calling for tripartite agreements. In 'Global Sisterhood and Political Change: The Unhappy 'Marriage' of Women's Movements and Nation States', Conny Roggeband and Mieke Verloo say that the success of the Dutch and Spanish women's movements in making sexual violence against women a political problem actually strengthened the state by enlarging its responsibilities with the protection of its citizens even in the sphere of their private relationships.

The editors admit that though many issues remain unresolved, there is a semblance of a consensus among the contributing political scientists in their contention that the nation state endures both nationally and internationally. The state has not yet withered away.