ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how sub-state nationalism within 'plurinational' States relates to wider contemporary challenges to traditionally rendered accounts of the 'Westphalian', statal model of sovereignty itself. It addresses the ways in which the new sub-state nationalist agenda constitutes one level of a tripartite series of issues emerging across supra-state, sectoral, and sub-state levels. The chapter explores the contemporary nationalist challenge within the wider condition of global political and constitutional flux and within wider-ranging contemporary debates, particularly in Europe but also in North America, concerning the nature of statehood itself. It explains how the challenge of sub-state nationalism manifests itself increasingly in demands for improved accommodationwithin the State rather than in the threat of secession. The chapter discusses the ways in which sub-State national societies themselves represent a rival site of authority which works to bring about a reconception of the plurinational nation-state, in particular by the ways in which they challenge traditional constructions of the State's constitutional self-understanding.
