Things that aren't nation-states

(((Bruce Sterling just posted some notes for a sci-fi novel he's working on. It's a dense annotated child's garden of fringely global politics. This thing deserves hyperlinks. It's like a whole semester's worth of poli-sci 101))

Link
"BEFORE AND AFTER WESTPHALIA: Or, ENTITIES THAT SEEM RATHER LIKE NATION-STATES, but aren't

The United Nations (association of states)

The European Union (post-state economic regulatory zone)

Trading blocs (NAFTA, ASEAN, Hanseatic League)

empires and confederacies (multi-states)

dictatorships (one-man state)

aristocracies and kingdoms (family states)

Communist dictatorship of the proletariat (non-state class rule)

megacorporate multinationals (the global private sector)

moguls (one-man private sector)

mega-cities (city-states)

police and security organizations (police states)

military (military dictatorships, martial law, occupied zones)

espionage (siloviki states, secret-police states) organized crime (shadow governments, kakistocracies)

Classified areas (state-supported labs, weapons-testing zones, secret prisons, Area 51, slave labor areas, puzzle palaces, black money projects that lack official existence)

social classes (capitalists, laborers, creative class, technocrats, white-collar, blue-collar, pink collar, underclass, aristocrats, the super-rich)

religions (papal states, holy cities. theocracies, Sharia, Quakers, Amish)

colonies, territories, protectorates (sub-states)

secessions, frozen conflicts, liberated zones, warlord havens (illegal states)

failed states (collapsed states, hollow states, black globalization, narcoterror areas)

embassies (embedded mini-states)

emergency rescue camps, refugee camps (damaged states)

migratory hordes (mobile stateless peoples)

slums, barrios, ghettos, favelas (under-states)

the international scientific community

prisons (states without individuals)

monasteries, asylums, retreats (antisocial micro-states)

conspiracies (Carbonari, Al Qaeda, Freemasons, Red Brigades)

cultural movements (Modernism, the Enlightenment, feminism)

The Internet

social-software networks

gaming environments, virtual worlds

International regulatory agencies and standards boards (WIPO, WTO, WHO, ITU, etc)

supra-national political parties (Communists, fascists, socialists, neocons)

benevolent associations (Elks, Kiwanis)

labor unions

universities and colleges

non-governmental organizations, quasi-autonomous non-governmental associations, blue-ribbon panels, independent prosecutors

private banking and investment networks (Medici, Fuggers, Rothschilds)

private postal systems, private logistics networks (Thurn and Taxis, Wal-Mart, Amazon)

Languages

Ethnicity

Phantom folk-sources of state-like power and authority: The Mainstream Media, the Gnomes of Zurich, the Wall Street Exploiters, the Ruling Class, the Elders of Zion, Secular Humanism, the Old Boys' Network, Jesuits, Freemasons, Illuminati, etc

"complexes": the military-industrial complex, the military-entertainment complex, the medical-industrial complex

tongs, clubs, voluntary associations

Insurgencies

pirates, bandits, gangsters

festivals, temporary autonomous zones

tribes

castaways

hermits

the dead: cemeteries, organized memorials, archives, museums

the unborn

areas devoid of human beings -- high seas, involuntary parks, wilderness, poles, outer space, ocean abysses, deserts, ruins..."