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Changing States, Changing Nations
"This book takes four recent examples of constitutional reform - in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia - and shows how each challenged citizens' basic understanding of what it was to be part of the nation. Vividly told, the narratives explore the ambitions of reformers to reshape their nations; Trudeau's bid to recast the Canadian Confederation; Keating's attempt to secure an Australian Republic; New Labour's radical reworking of the British constitution; and a campaign by the Right in the USA to grant the Stars & Stripes constitutional protection against violation.Taken together the stories explore shifting concepts of nationhood but each is, in its own right, an important contribution to the political history of the nation in question. The three Commonwealth stories contrast with their American counterpart. In Canada, Australia and the UK globalisation is threatening the established...