ABSTRACT
Until the Second World War the nation-state was in exclusive control of its sovereignty. The old model had the following features: clear national sovereignty exercised by parliament and an executive; borders which were considered impermeable and inviolable; monopoly control of the apparatus of legitimate violence (army, police, prisons, etc.); the existence of a single focus of legitimation, in accordance with which only citizens of the state had the right to vote; political representation expressed exclusively through state institutions; and the exclusive authority of the state-national government in the political, economic and social spheres (Loughlin, 1993).
