Crossing Borders of Political Governance and Democracy

Abstract

Political governance and democracy are associated so closely with the modern nation- state that it is difficult to imagine them in any other political setting. As a consequence of globalization, the alleged passing or "unbundling" of the nation-state (at the very least its transformation) therefore poses a severe challenge to these two founding concepts, requiring a new language of politics and rule which can at least partially transcend traditional state-centric territorialities (Ruggie 1993; Held 1995; Linklater 1998). The field of human geography, in particular, has been challenged to think beyond the "territorial trap" of perceiving culture, identity and politics as isomorphic with national space (Agnew 1999).