No Nation-State?

With a PoD after the founding of the Roman Empire, is it possible to prevent the concept of a "nation-state" from arising? What I mean by that is preventing ethnicity-based, well-defined states becoming the global norm, like they did after Western conquest IOTL. Please educate me if I misunderstand, but it is my understanding that before the development of Western Europe, most empires or kingdoms were not nation-based or ethnicity-based, but rather based around loyalty to a protector; in medieval times, this was the feudal system, in ancient times this was the Empire. The same can be said of the ancient Eastern kingdoms. In the East, instead of ethnically fragmenting and solidifying their own boundaries, the Chinese states were ruled for so long by a single empire that their culture revolved around the idea of staying in one empire— the Mandate of Heaven. Could this happen in the West?

(Sorry about the short question, I'm typing this in my phone.)
 
I don't think it can be prevented. It is simply a more stable state. I've had soem thoughts in that direction, and the best I've been able to come up with is a bit of an interregnum.
 
Have monarchy be deemed awesome. You have some nation state kingdoms (France, Spain, Poland, Sicily...) and some mixed ethnicity (Denmark, Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire, Russia, Greater Romania). The ethnicity would be deemed less important than the ruling dynasty.
 
Sure. Ethnicity based nation-states only became the norm during the 19th century. A PoD which allows the Ottomans, Austria, Poland-Lithuania, India, etc to flourish during that time will entrench "territorial patriotism" as the dominant ideology instead. This was happening OTL before it was smothered by the weakening of the multi-ethnic states. Now, some states will still heavily favor the dominant ethnicity-just look at the US/France in OTL-but the ideology won't officially be ethnic-based.

Have monarchy be deemed awesome. You have some nation state kingdoms (France, Spain, Poland, Sicily...) and some mixed ethnicity (Denmark, Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire, Russia, Greater Romania). The ethnicity would be deemed less important than the ruling dynasty.

Plenty of monarchies in OTL were still ethnic states while some republics weren't officially ethnicity-based.
 
Maybe have the Rousseauian idea that democracy could only function in a geographically compact state become more dominant, resulting in the large Absolutist states like France being broken up into multiple geographically situated republics and/or Swiss style hyper-federal cantons. There may well still develop ideas of nationhood, but it could be seen as separate from statehood, in much the same way that ancient Greeks had distinct ideas of Greekness that was distinct from political organisation based around City-States and Kingdoms.
 
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