This original analysis of structuration, agency and the state offers an incisive explanation of the changing nature of the state.

Cerny argues that the state is not being transcended; the architecture of politics is not moving beyond the nation-state despite the emergence of transnational structures. He points to the movement of many states towards the model of the `competition state', and away from the model of `welfare state', as the major contemporary change in the role of the state. He asserts that new forms of political action will have to evolve if the state itself is to be controlled and used for the pursuit of deeper human values in the 21st century.