ABSTRACT
In the modern liberal nation-state rights, liberties, and justice are attributes of institutional arrangements, beginning with the rule of law, that divide authority among autonomous agencies and limit the exercise of their authority. These institutional arrangements and the mutual autonomy structuring the liberal nation-state take time to create and political will to sustain. There were several attributes of medieval England that favored the inception of the liberal nation-state in the British Isles, starting with its being an island and conveniently defensible if unified, but the compelling and integrating theme is balance of power between contending groups. All free nation-states are electoral democracies, but not all electoral democracies are free states; however, no unfree state is an electoral democracy. Two encouraging characteristics of nation-states in 2007 are the state of monetary freedom; the impacts of a lack of free press on corruption. Restrictions on academic freedom and a lack of quality liberal arts in academe may cripple the effort.
