ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the boundaries within which both the governing and the governed acted. In the Western world the context within which government developed was one of continuous refinement of legal and geographical boundaries. The development of legal boundaries is best summarized in the development of the concept of sovereignty, while the development of geographical boundaries draws attention to processes of, at first, state making and later nation building. It is generally believed that the church and army have played a significant role in the state-making process and had a bearing on the organizational development of government. In terms of administrative history the modern world starts around the 1800s. Most prominent in that period is the ideological fusion of state and nation into the nation-state, or in Tilly's phrase "the national state". Given the rise of international associations and supranational organizations, some argue that the nation-state has had its day.
