To Örebro University

State-building processes and democracy can be highlighted in relation to different spatial scales. Traditional territorial units such as states are not necessarily replaced in contemporary social science but rather complemented by other kinds of units. One such unit that has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of Political Science, Sociology, Human Geography etc. is the urban arena. The urban space can be both a geopolitically important arena where for instance wars takes place, but urban space can also be constructed for various purposes and sometimes has great symbolic value on its own. At the same time, many studies on local democracy show that minority groups are often excluded from or have less influence over important urban policy areas. When the city and its territory is particularly important for the identity of one group and for a state-building process based mainly on that group, there is a serious risk that the interests of other groups are overlooked in the policy process. This kind of identity bias is traceable in documents, legal texts and political debates. The purpose of this paper is; 1. to explore the importance of cities in the state-building process and 2. to examine the connection between the state-building process and urban planning policy. The theoretical approach is to connect the concept of identity and policy analysis, more specifically to discuss the relation between the constructivist perspective and rationalism. One way to further explore the relation between state-building and democracy is to apply a comparative perspective. Empirical examples in the paper is taken from earlier studies within this field and from a recently performed field study in Jerusalem. The conclusions in the paper are drawn from various planning policy documents and interviews. The paper contributes to the discussion on the relation between state- and nation-building on one hand and the city and its policy processes on the other. The paper contributes to a d6iscussion on the connection between state-building and democracy.