Nation and democracy Article 2. The Illusion of a Post-national World and the Crisis in Western Democracies
The second article (see article 1 in the previous issue) focuses on relationship between national unity and democracy. In this paper, considering both the EU and the US cases, the authors argue that the maintaining of modern democracy needs the very same background condition, whereas the current crisis in western political system is mainly due to such factors as national deconsolidation, deformation of civic nations and the elitist concept of "post-national" world. The article aims at showing that that idea remains an illusion and investigates its links to other fallacies, namely those about the causes of the national-populist wave, Brexit and the unexpected Trump's election in the United States. The authors' approach contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between nationhood, democracy and civil participation, as well as highlights the role of national identity as a key collective identity in the modern world.