Federalism, Decentralisation and

Conflict Management in Multicultural

Societies

Public Conference fromThomas Fleiner

Budapest – January 2008

How should they be governed?

Who should govern whom?

Holding or bringing multiculturalSocieties together we have to ask:

And even more explosiv:Who should decide who should govern?

Main Questions:

Multicul-turality

Nation-state

Challenges of the Na-tion-State

Glocali-sation

Fragmen-tation

Diversi-tiy con-

flicts

The Challenge of the Nation State

Do federalism and decentralizationhelp to bring or to hold

multicultural societies together?

Why is multiculturalism a problem?

The issues:

Is a fragmented civil societyas nation builder of a multicultural

state conceivable and realistic?

Based on what concepts doesthe international community

intervene and/or manageconflicts of multicutlural societies?

EgocentricHobbes

Bearers ofunalienable

rightsLocke

RationalCitoyensRousseau

Exploitersor

exploitedMarx

Cost-benefit drivenHomo oeconomicus

State of Modernity: all human individuals are equal as being

What is the main problem?

Capable of rea-son and judge-

ment Kant

What

is

good

for

all?

Universa

l values,

but they d

o not take

cultu

re as l

egtimacy

fundam

ent

for politc

al identit

y serio

us

Nation-State facingMulticulturality

Nation - State

IgnoringCulture

DenyingCulture

Integrating in-to one cultu-re of identity

Conflict withethnic

minorities

have economic roots

are generated byfundamentalism

are promoted bywarlords

have historical rootsare stired up by

neighbours

Controversy about the roots and the potentials of the different conflicts:

Indu

ced b

y e

thnicity

Illegitimate state

State v. minority terror

Multiculturality:Diversity Conflicts

Sympto

ms o

r cause

s?

Consumers profit fromglobal market

„citoyens“ claim universalityof human rights

human beings seek local security and local identity

Reality ModernState Glocalisation

What is

good

for

us and for our

com

mu

nit

ies?To

get legi-timacy from

diversi-ties by

Promoting:shared-ruleself-rule?

Reconciling:conflict ma-nagement

power-sharing?

Tolerating:minority

protection;affirmative

action?

Equalising:collective

rights?

Challenges of the Nation-Statewith regard to fragmen-

tation by diversity

Legitim

acy of m

ulticultu

ral n

ations t

a-

kes c

ulture

s serio

usely

but is f

ocuss

ing

on particu

lar rath

er than unive

rsal v

alues

I. To bring or to hold together by

state-makingor by

state-reconstructing

Bring togetherthrough

constitution making

bydemocraticprocedure:Who is the„Pouvoir

Constituant“?

Bring together by Constitution

makingNegotiation

Hold togetherthrough

reconstructingthe federalbalance:

Creating anew canton

by secession

Berne

Jura

CH

Creating a newCanton

Juraout of

secessionand

self-de-termina-

tion

French

German

Along language

lines?

Catholic

Protestant

Or along

religiouslines?

Nation –building:

Hold togetherthrough

reconstructingthe federalbalance:

II. Hold or bring together

bydecentralization

The challenge ofelitism

To bring togetherby improving local

democracy

Transparancyand

accountability

To bring together byimproving

localdemocracy

Responsiveness

To hold together by

improving local

governance

HumanRights

To hold toge-ther by

improving local

governance

III. To hold or bringfragmented

civil society(ies)together

With Rights

To bring civil so-cieties together

with rights

Right ofSelf-determination

To bringtogether

with rights

Collective rights

Civil societiesfacing

diversities

How cancivil

societi(es)hold together

when theyface

pluralismof

languages

How cancivil

societ(ies)hold to-gether

when theyface

religiousdiversities

IV. To bring or holdtogether

by the internationalcommunity

To bring together

Role andlegitimacy

of international

action

To hold togethter

Forms of internationalinvolvement:Governance

Constitution makingState-makingState

Unity

Bri

ng a

nd h

old

mu

ltic

ulu

ralit

yto

geth

er

Negotiation

Soft secession

Nation-Building

Elitism

Transparency

Responsiveness

Human Rights

Self-Determination

Collective Rights

Language

Religion

Intervention

Int. governance

Recon-structing

State StructureDecentralisation

Local de-mocracy

Local Go-vernance

Civil So-ciety

Rights

Diversi-ties

Interna-tional C.

Bring together

Hold together

Bring together

Hold together

Bring together

Hold together

Bring together

Hold together