The UK as a Multi-National State: contested histories, state-formation and constitutional settlement

This chapter takes a critical look at how the UK, as we know it today, has come together over time as a multi-national state and the impact these processes of ‘assemblage’ have on the politics of the country. To achieve this, it considers what a nation-state is and what makes a state ‘multi-national’, it assesses the specific dynamics of territorial distinctiveness across the nations of the UK, and it evaluates the constitutional settlement that has emerged from the long path of incremental unification that characterises our country.