The State and Nation in the Technological Era

Abstract

At the moment, the historical period that the Nation-State is living must be understood taking into account the combined effects of the globalization process and the rapid technological change, that today has its greatest exponent in what has come to be called the 4th Industrial Revoluction, together with the the Fatigue of Leviathan, caused by the irregular activity of more than three centuries in the Western countries. The main argument is that we are not whitnessing the end of national discourses, nor the crisis of the traditional institutions of the State, but the configuration of a new distribution of political power. This new configuration is characterized by new correlations between the institutional forces at the macro level –large political regions, international organzation, multinational corporations–, the regionalization process at the meso level –the increasing relevance of regions resulting of the decentralization of the political and economical power of the State–, and the movements at the micro level –pheripheral regions and nationalities–. The result is a variable geometry that show us that the political power of the State is now embedded in a amplified network of institutions that are defining the capabilities of political action.