WORLD SOCIETY AND THE NATION-STATE

The authors analyze the nation-state as a worldwide institution constr ucted by worldwide cultural and associational processes, developing fo ur main topics: (1) properties of nation-states that result from their exogenously driven construction, including isomorphism, decoupling, a nd expansive structuration; (2) processes by which rationalistic world culture affects national states; (3) characteristics of world society that enhance the impact of world culture on national states and socie ties, including conditions favoring the diffusion of world models, exp ansion of world-level associations, and rationalized scientific and pr ofessional authority; (4) dynamic features of world culture and societ y that generate expansion, conflict, and change, especially the statel essness of world society, legitimation of multiple levels of rationali zed actors, and internal inconsistencies and contradictions.