ABSTRACT
The work of Karl Marx is a good starting point for a reconstruction of a social theory of the nation-state that, at the same time, is a critique of methodological nationalism. Although even sympathetic commentators have made the argument that Marx’s work is not particularly helpful for understanding the nation-state’s position in modernity (Giddens 1985: 23-31), the fact that Marx did not address the question of the nation-state directly can be turned here into an advantage. Marx neither conceived of the nation-state as the highest form of socio-political organisation nor did he anticipate a ‘universal’ process of nation-state formation. In his work we are going to find a clear rebuttal of the thesis that the nation-state is the only, crucial or necessary yardstick to assess the political forms of capitalist development.
