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Abstract

This article challenges the widely held assumption that globalization is creating a new type of world society at the expense of the nation-state. Arguments assembled to support this challenge include the reminder that vast social changes are inevitably incremental in character; that increasing complexity rather than revolutionary transformation is the theme of contemporary social changes in the world; that the staying-power of sovereign states is impressive, and that a number of factors including the international terrorist threat are shoring them up; and with respect to cultural change the prospect is for continuity of processes already under way rather than radical transformation.

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Pressures for Continuity in the Context of Globalization

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