Syllabus
Sessions and Mandatory Readings
Day 1, 18 March: Classifying institutions of minority self-government
Lapidoth, Ruth. (1996). Autonomy. Flexible solutions to ethnic conflicts. United States Inst. of Peace Press: Washington, DC. Chapter 1 and Chapter 3.
Beretka, Katinka & Balázs Dobos. 2023. The Legal and Institutional Context of NTA, in: Marina Andeva et al. (eds.) Non-Territorial Autonomy: An Introduction, Springer, pp. 145-163.
Anderson, Liam D. (2013). Federal solutions to ethnic problems. Accommodating diversity. Routledge: Abingdon. à “Introduction”: pp. 1-10.
Day 2, 19 March: Why is minority self-government introduced?
Jenne, Erin K. (2007). Ethnic bargaining: The paradox of minority empowerment. Cornell University Press. à Chapter 1: pp. 19-37 and Chapter 2: pp. 38-53.
Zuber, Christina Isabel. (2011). Understanding the multinational game: Toward a theory of asymmetrical federalism. Comparative Political Studies 44 (5): 546-571.
Day 3, 20 March: What are the effects of minority self-government?
Roeder, Philip G. (2009). Ethnofederalism and the mismanagement of conflicting nationalisms. Regional and Federal Studies 19.2 (2009): 203-219.
Anderson, Liam D. (2013). Federal solutions to ethnic problems. Accommodating diversity. Routledge: Abingdon. à “Bringing it together”: pp. 249-277.
Juon, A., & Bochsler, D. (2023). The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time? Territorial Autonomy and Conflict During Regime Transitions. Comparative Political Studies, 56(13), 1996-2029. https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140231168365
Day 4, 21 March: The case study method
· Gerring, John. The Case Study: What it is and what it does. In Carles Boix and Susan Stokes (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, pp. 90-122, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
· Thomas, Gary. How to do your case study. A guide for students and researchers. Sage: Los Angeles. à Chapter 9: “Out in the field. Some ways to collect data and evidence”: pp. 161-169.
· Notes on your case, remaining questions on your presentations
Day 5, 22 March: Student Workshop: “New Insights into Minority Self-Government”.
à Please choose your case(s) in advance and register your choice with me via email by 1 March 2024! (Some ideas from my knowledge of cases in Europe are listed hereafter, but please feel free to choose other cases from other parts of the world. Note that historical cases are also possible and can be very insightful):
Non-territorial autonomy in the form of cultural councils for national minorities in Serbia, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Russia or in Estonia (where they have a very long history).
Non-territorial autonomy in the form of the three linguistic communities in Belgium.
Ethnic federalism in SFR Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, or in Belgium.
Ethnoterritorial federalism in Spain or India.
Federacies: Aland islands. Attempted: Kosovo.
Autonomous regions with special status in decentralized states: South Tyrol, Crimea (before Russian annexation), or Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom
Multi-ethnic regions with autonomy: Vojvodina in Serbia and Istria in Croatia.
Decentralization and local self-government rights: Macedonia / Romania
The Sami Parliaments of the Nordic countries
… your own ideas!
Annotation
This course introduces the variety of institutions of minority self-government, discusses their promises and pitfalls and compares empirical cases. The course lasts one week and is structured into three theoretical and two empirical units that take the form of student contributions in a workshop.
On day 1, we define and classify institutions of territorial and cultural autonomy designed to realize the principle of minority self-government (such as federalism, decentralization, or cultural councils of national minorities). Day 2 addresses the question of why minority self-government is introduced in heterogeneous societies, given that members of the majority group could govern without minorities’ support.
Day 3 then assesses the (intended and unintended) effects of these institutions: Does territorial autonomy allow for peaceful cooperation between members of the minority and majority population or does it set incentives for secession? Do cultural councils cater to the interests of citizens with a minority identity or merely to the interests of dominant minority elites? Day 4 provides a summary of the case study method and gives students time to finalize the work on their own case studies. Students choose an autonomy arrangement and prepare a presentation classifying the arrangement, explain how it came about, and assess its effects.
Day 5 takes place as a workshop, where students present their case studies and where we then compare the cases and summarize the insights.