State, Nation and Democracy: Alternative Global Futures

The nineteen papers in this volume, presented at two seminars held in Jadavpur University, Kolkata, examine the relationship between the state, on the one hand, and nationalism and democracy, on the other, in the light of globalization. They deliberate on ethnic resurgence, religious revival, tensions between the forces of nationalism and supranational integration, persistent refusal of certain states to fall in line with the ‘third wave’ of democracy, and dissolution of the infrastructure of welfarism resulting in the notions of nationalism and democracy increasingly being couched in anti-statist language. The contributors also address the problem of ‘democracy deficit’ which permeates contemporary international exchanges and institutions.