There was an anarchist writer I read, perhaps Murray Bookchin, who proposed that oppressive power should be frustrated by arranging that functional borders never coincided. Water mangement, sewers, language, electricity, schools, language, political representation for this purpose, and representation for that other purpose, all would be different, so that there would be no single loyalty or single center of authority to create a Whole.
Such a proposal goes to the other extreme from the nation state. The anarchist seeks to forestall any place gathering any more than divided power and allegiance. He is right that places resist coincident borders, but they also assert unity across functions.
(c) David Kolb, 1 August 2001