This paper provides an overview of the issues and dynamics which is necessary to situate the diverse concerns for the rest of the papers that make up this issue of the Journal. We provide an overview of those issues that we see as salient for an understanding of the political and economic context in which Working Nation was developed. We also foreshadow some of the key aspects of Working Nation...

This paper presents a model of nation formation in which culturally heterogeneous agents vote on the optimal level of public spending. Larger nations beneÞt from increasing returns in the provision of public goods, but bear the costs of greater cultural heterogeneity. This tradeoff induces agents’ preferences over different geographical conÞgurations, thus determining the likelihood of secessio...

" We won't swallow it " (Daily Mirror) and " GM comes a cropper as Britain says a huge No " (Daily Express) were typical headlines greeting the results of the UK's public consultation on GM food. The government-funded " GM Nation? " survey showed that only 2% of people would eat it. 95% were worried that growing GM plants would contaminate non-GM ones, 93% felt not enough was known about long-t...

Nationalist sentiments characterize the Scotish James Macpherson’s Ossianic tales and the Persian Abul-Ghasim Ferdausi’s Shahnameh. Macpherson is remembered for his role in the nationalist Gaelic revival against the cultural dominance of Great Britain and Ferdausi is credited for enlivening Persian language and culture at the time of Arab dominance. However, Macpherson’s dual position, both as ...