Faculty Talk: Book presentation "Fragile Nations"

Non-sovereign nations are fragile: not because they lack identity but because their futures depend on sustained collective efforts to preserve institutions, cultures, and political autonomy while they remain unequal partners within constitutional frameworks.

 

In a brilliant sociopolitical analysis of five non-sovereign nations – Catalonia, Northern Ireland, Wallonia, South Tyrol, and Quebec – Félix Mathieu offers new empirical evidence that a state’s constitutional character shapes the management of national diversity and advances novel ideas for creating authentic multinational democracies. Beginning with each state’s formative rupture and unfolding through the twists of political modernity, Fragile Nations shows how political, social, and economic forces interact with constitutional structures. It examines how unitary or federal states enable or constrain minority nations in building institutions and shaping their destinies. Mathieu brings empirical depth to theoretical debates and takes a compelling look at the democratic principles of pluralism and equity, which can sustain fairer, more inclusive multinational states.

 

Fragile Nations engages in questions about nationalism, federalism, minority nations, and the challenges of governance, enriching wider conversations about identity, sovereignty, and coexistence in diverse societies.

 

Bios

 

Félix Mathieu is Professor and Chair of the undergraduate programs in the Department of Law at the Université du Québec en Outaouais. He is the co-director of the Observatoire de recherche sur les enjeux constitutionnels du Québec au sein de la fédération canadienne. From 2022 to 2026, he was co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Political Science. His work focuses on the theory and practice of federalism, nationalism, the management of diversity, and constitutional politics in Canada and in comparative perspective. He is the author of Fragile Nations: The Promise and Perils of Multinational Democracies (2026, McGill-Queen’s University Press), Constitutionalism v. Diversity: Essays on Federal Democracy (2023, Peter Lang, with Dave Guénette), and Taking Pluralism Seriously: Complex Societies Under Scrutiny (2022, McGill-Queen’s University Press).

 

Professor Nicola McEwen is a Professor of Public Policy and Governance in the College of Social Sciences and Director of the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Glasgow. Nicola was previously at Edinburgh University from 2001, first as Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer in 2006, and as Professor of Territorial Politics from 2014. She was founding Co-Director of the Centre on Constitutional Change, where she remains a Research Fellow. Nicola completed a Senior Research Fellowship with the ESRC UK in a Changing Europe, having previously been Principal Investigator of one of its prestigious Brexit Priority Grants. Her project, entitled A Family of Nations? Brexit, Devolution and the Union, explored intergovernmental relations in UK-EU negotiations, and the implications of Brexit for devolution and the future of the Union. From 2019-2022, Nicola was Research Fellow in a major ESRC-funded project, Between Two Unions: The Constitutional Future of the Islands after Brexit, where she led the research strand charting the evolution of intergovernmental relations. Nicola has published widely in the field of territorial politics, nationalism, multi-level government and policy-making, and multi-level parties and elections. She is actively involved in informing debate within the wider policy and political community, through with extensive experience in providing analysis in broadcast, print and social media, public engagement, advice to governments and parliamentary committees, and consultancy.