What is Wrong with the Concept of Multinational Federalism? Some Thoughts about the Interrelationship between the Concepts of (Multi-)Nationalism, Federalism, Power Sharing and Conflict Resolution

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12892005
AutoresJoseph Marko (0000-0002-5257-5784, University of Graz, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume19
Fascículo4
Páginas416-432
Data de publicação2020-08-04
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEthnopolitics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1744-9057 • E-ISSN: 1744-9065
EditoraTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17449057.2020.1795476
OpenAlexW3047108585
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas34

This article deals with the theoretical and methodological problems in any effort to conceptualize a model of multinational federalism. This is shown through an exemplary review of scholarly literature frequently ending up in nothing else but tautological regressions and/or ideologically driven dichotomizations of basic terms and concepts such as ethnic group, community, nationality, minority or (co-)nation when using these terms interchangeably, in particular, through combinations such as 'minority-nation', in order to get hold of the phenomenon of overlapping social, political and cultural diversities. These problems of conceptualization, symbolized through the perennial question 'What 'is' a nation or minority?' in order to be able to establish an allegedly objective or universal definition, are trapped in what I call the ethnic–civic–national oxymoron following from political theories of nationalism and liberalism based on normative-ontological approaches. In order to overcome the mentioned theoretical and methodological trap(s) based on the confusion of epistemology and ontology, this article argues for the necessity to overcome ideological dichotomizations through the method of triangulation. In the end, based on this method, I try to develop an institutional model of multicultural instead of multinational federalism which allows from the very beginning to take the empirical processes of ethnification and/or de-ethnification as major drivers for 'multiple diversity governance' into account. This de-construction of the concept of multinational federalism and the re-conceptualization of a model of multicultural federalism also allows to overcome the theoretical battles in power sharing literature between so-called accomodationists and integrationists, based on the dichotomization of their policy prescriptions

Economic system · Economics · Federalism · Law and economics · Multinational corporation · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Power sharing · Sociology · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Political Systems and Governance · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics