ABSTRACT
Our lives in western Europe* for almost two hundred years have been moulded by the nation-state. It is now commonly said and written that this organization has had its day. Indeed, for forty years some western European states, including those with the most celebrated historical traditions, have openly discussed the possibility of eventual political unification. This has not been merely the indulgence in abstract political debate and utopian speculation about European unity which at the level of political elites goes back more nearly four hundred than forty years. It has been accompanied by real changes in political structures, whose proclaimed purpose has been to bring that unity nearer. It is not merely that a long-running abstract political debate has been recently democratized, like so many other physical and intellectual pleasures. Changes have occurred since 1945 which give citizens of European countries real cause to ask whether national government, which has so long shaped the basic organizational framework within which they live, will continue to do so.
