Introduction

In the past decade, the study of federalism has come to enjoy significant theoretical and empirical prominence. It has been argued that federalism is somewhat of a ''growth industry'' within political science.1 International organisations such as the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme have increasingly prescribed federalism and decentralisation as the most promising tools to foster accountability, democratisation and economic growth. Concurrently, federalism has emerged as an important tool for conflict resolution. Federalism has come to be seen as an instrument to accommodate territorially based ethnic, cultural and linguistic differences in divided societies, while maintaining the territorial integrity of existing states. These developments have facilitated the emergence of comparative studies on how federations and federal-alike forms of governance work in practice. To what extent and how federalism and federally organised states contribute to conflict management and resolution has become one of the central questions of such studies.

• Übergeordnetes Werk / Enthalten in
  Federalism and conflict management

• Band / Heft
  2017, 1, S. 7-10

• Sprache
  Deutsch