MINORITY COMMUNITIES IN FEDERAL AND HIGHLY DECENTRALIZED POLITICAL SYSTEMS

Within this research track, the Cluster investigates the ways minorities are accommodated in polities characterized either by federal or highly decentralized features (e.g. Spain, United Kingdom). Our focus is twofold. We look at both the normative and operational context created at the broadest level of decentralization, that is regional, in order to understand the evolution of a given system of governance and grasp the nature of socio-political dynamics characterizing the relationship between this level and the centre. This is related to such issues as demands for and rationale behind the deepening of decentralization, as well as the presence of pro-sovereignty aspirations in a given region. The second of the above-mentioned foci is more narrowly observing the internal dimension of regional politics, primarily by analysing what role issues linked to diversity play in the ideologies of regional political parties, how such issues are being debated during electoral campaigns and within regional legislative bodies, and ultimately what kind of discourses regional media produce with regard to these topics.

 

Project activities

  • Sovereignty conflicts in Europe: Basis for a solution
    Coordinated by Eusko Ikaskuntza (Society for Basque Studies) and the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (The Institute for Catalan Studies), this project aims at the creation of a conceptual basis for a code of good practice for a peaceful management of territorial disputes, inspired by such values and principles as rule of law, inclusive deliberation, protection of minority rights, transparency, democratic resolution of political conflicts. Thanks to the involvement of more than 60 international experts and systematic debates concerning the subject, towards the end of 2020 an advanced draft of such a conceptual basis was made available to the public. Currently, the project enters its next phase, with the goal of consolidating the academic networks built around this initiative and increasing the awareness of the project among citizens of European countries and their political representatives operating at regional, national and international levels. The ECMI’s efforts concerning this activity are coordinated by Dr. Sergiusz Bober, with additional involvement of the Centre’s Director Prof. Dr. Vello Pettai and Senior Researcher Dr. Ljubica Djordjević.
    More information about the project

 

Publications

Events

  • International conference - Sovereignty conflicts in Europe: Basis for a solution, Eusko Ikaskuntza (Society for Basque Studies), Bilbao (Spain) / online, 26 November 2020
    Sergiusz Bober presented “The nexus between sovereignty, globalization, and minority rights. How are these concepts interconnected in the context of territorial conflicts of sovereignty?”
    Programme
     
  • The 10th Annual ECMI Summer School on National Minorities in Border Regions - Minorities and Referendums: Shaping or Being Shaped? Flensburg (Germany), 23-30 August 2020
    Sergiusz Bober delivered lecture “Does sovereignty matter in the 21st century? The debates around the Scottish independence referendum of 2014”Programme 

 

Multimedia

ECMI Founders

The German Federal Government
The Danish Government
The Federal State Schleswig-Holstein