ABSTRACT
Stein Rokkan felt that the new states could learn from European experience, "more from the smaller countries than from the large, more from the multiculturally consociational polities than from the homogeneous dynastic states, more from the European latecomers than from the old established nations." Lord Acton arguments for a multicultural state lead us toward a surprising result: under the tutelage of a superior nationality, members of the less advanced cultures in the state will shed many of their distinctive traits and learn true civilization. Exactly how much will remain of their peculiar identities remains unclear, but his vision of social integration was not as far removed from John Stuart Mill's as many observers have been led to believe. Nation-building theory was primarily used to describe the processes of national integration and consolidation that led up to the establishment of the modem nation-state—as distinct from various form of traditional states, such as feudal and dynastic states, church states, and empires.
