This book provides a comprehensive and detailed examination of the successes and failures of federalism in a diverse range of multi-ethnic polities and societies. It offers excellent coverage of the experiences of a wide range of contemporary states with specially commissioned contributions from established authorities. An introductory chapter introduces the reader to the nature of federations, the political philosophies that underpin federalism, the characteristics of federal formations, and highlights some of the theories as to why this system of government has failed in some cases to provide ethno-regional stability. A concluding chapter draws upon the findings and examines the prospects for federalism in the light of the acceleration towards greater economic interdependency and local political fragmentation, in the post-Cold War world.

A collection of state of the art reflections by fourteen leading experts in the field of multinational federalism. Seymour and Gagnon have gathered contributions from philosophers, political scientists and jurists dealing with the accommodation of peoples in countries like Belgium, Canada, Europe, Great Britain, India and Spain.

This edited volume explores the obstacles to and opportunities for the development and entrenchment of a sustainable and representative multinational federalism. In doing so, it tackles a striking puzzle: on the one hand, scholars agree that deeply diverse multinational and multiethnic democracies should adopt federal structures that reflect and empower territorially concentrated diversity. On the other hand, there are very few, if any, real examples of enshrined and fully operative substantive multinational federalism. What are the main roadblocks to the adoption of multinational federalism? Can they be overcome? Is there a roadmap to realizing multinational federalism in the twenty-first century? In addressing these questions, this book brings together scholars from across the globe who explore a diverse range of cases from different and innovative analytical approaches. The chapters contribute to answering the above questions, each in their own way, while also addressing other important aspects of multinational federalism. The book concludes that the way forward likely depends on the emergence of a specific set of norms and a receptiveness to the complex institutional design.

Ethiopia s unique system of ethnic-based federalism claims to minimise conflict by organising political power along ethnic lines. This empirical study shows that the system eases conflict at some levels but also sharpens inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic divides on the ground.

This book examines the impact of the federal restructuring of Ethiopia on ethnic conflicts. The adoption of ethnic federalism in Ethiopia was closely related with the problem of creating a state structure that could be used as instrument of managing the complex ethno-linguistic diversity of the country. Ethiopia is a multinational country with about 85 ethno-linguistic groups and since the 1960s, it suffered from ethno-regional conflicts. The book considers multiple governance and state factors that could explain the difficulties Ethiopian federalism faces to realise its objectives. These include lack of political pluralism and the use of ethnicity as the sole instrument of state organisation. Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in Ethiopia will be of interest to students and scholars of federal studies, ethnic conflict and regionalism.

There are at least three times as many nations as states in the world today. This book addresses some of the special challenges that arise when two or more national communities re the same (multinational) state. As a work in normative political philosophy its principal aim is to evaluate the political and institutional choices of citizens and governments in states with rival nationalist discourses and nation-building projects. The first chapter takes stock of a decade of intensephilosophical and sociological debates about the nature of nations and nationalism. Norman identifies points of consensus in these debates, as well as issues that do not have to be definitively resolved in order to proceed with normative theorizing. He recommends thinking of nationalism as a form ofdiscourse, a way of arguing and mobilizing support, and not primarily as a belief in a principle. A liberal nationalist, then, is someone who uses nationalist arguments, or appeals to nationalist sentiments, in order to rally support for liberal policies. The rest of the book is taken up with the three big political and institutional choices in multinational states. First, what can political actors and governments legitimately do to shape citizens' national identity or identities? This is thecore question in the ethics of nation-building, or what Norman calls national engineering. Second, how can minority and majority national communities each be given an adequate degree of self-determination, including equal rights to carry out nation-building projects, within a democratic federal state?Finally, even in a world where most national minorities cannot have their own state, how should the constitutions of multinational federations regulate secessionist politics within the rule of law and the ideals of democracy? More than a decade after Yael Tamir's ground-breaking Liberal Nationalism, Norman finds that these three great practical and institutional questions have still rarely been addressed within a comprehensive normative theory of nationalism.