Nationalism and the Puzzle of Reversing State Size

@article{nationalism-and-the-puzzle-of-reversing-state-size,
   abstract = {After having increased for centuries, territorial state sizes started declining toward the end of the 19th century and have continued to do so until today. What explains this puzzle? We argue that ethnic nationalism is the main driver of this development. Our approach relies on time-varying spatial data on state borders and ethnic geography since the 19th century. Focusing on deviations from the nation-state ideal, we postulate that states' internal fragmentation leads to reductions of states' size and that state-carrying ethnic groups' spilling over state borders makes expansion more likely. Conducted at the systemic and state levels, our analysis exploits information at the interstate dyadic level to capture specific nationalist processes such as ethnic secession, unification, and irredentism. We find that while nationalism exerts both integrating and disintegrating effects on states' territories, it is the latter impact that has dominated.},
   author = {Cederman, Lars-Erik and Girardin, Luc and M\"uller-Crepon, Carl},
   journal = {Working Paper},
   title = {{Nationalism and the Puzzle of Reversing State Size}},
   year = {2021},
   status = {personal nastac-wp}
}