ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of globalisation and European integration in the formation and evolution of the nationalism of the rich. It argues that globalisation has had a three-fold impact: it is deemed to have contributed to reducing the fiscal and monetary leverage of governments, thus exacerbating distributional conflicts; through trade liberalisation, it has reduced the ‘optimal’ size of countries, thus creating a more enabling environment for secession; it has promoted the development of regional economies. With regard to European integration, the chapter stresses one major influence: the creation of a supranational constitutional order has challenged the legitimacy of the nation-state and offered a kind of ‘constitutional umbrella’ that has reduced anxiety about some perceived negative consequences of independence.
