The state has been a dominant political form, and the preferred model for a political unity, for at least the last two hundred years. However, many today speak of its crisis. This crisis stems from two main factors: the state’s changing role in the globalizing international system and the state’s complex relation to democracy, a key normative concept of contemporary politics.

Authoritarian leaders using the state to successfully reaffirm sovereignty, despite international integration; democratic movements abound but often only work to reinforce anarchic democracy regimes they contest. Is there an alternative? Do we need to reconceive the phenomenon of state, with a view to the future? These are the questions that an international group of scholars explore and answer in this book, drawing on history of political thought, continental philosophy, and the contemporary political examples.

They engage the dialectical tradition broadly understood, including phenomenological transcendentalism, the political philosophy of French public law, and the German 20th century political philosophy beyond Weber. The result brings the state into a critical political philosophy, providing a realistic sketch of what a good democratic state could and should be like.