Falling back on the (nation) state – and hating it

The 2008 global financial crisis unexpectedly thrust the nation state back to the centre of political and economic decision-making, and left much-vaunted global policy institutions struggling ineffectually. Yet Patrick Dunleavy argues that the huge government interventions triggered by the collapse of the economic ‘boom’ years have now very quickly sparked perverse efforts to deny that these events happened. A strong reluctance to recognise that society depends upon the state across many dimensions has been compounded by the sovereign debt crisis – as smaller European states buckle under the burden of forcibly socialized bank debts. Meanwhile the decline of west and the rise of the east and south in world politics increase the unease and anger in western public opinion