Language and federalism

Ethnic, linguistic, and religious identities have emerged during the past decade as major challenges to the institutional capacity of the modern state to cope with cultural diversity. As such, multilingualism, which formulates a response to this challenge, has emerged as a new focus of empirical research on federalism. This provides a contrast to classic studies of federalism, which concentrated on the institutional division of powers between a state and its constituent units. Language plays a double role in this: as a thin bond for communication and negotiation between political actors, and a thick system of meanings, carrying the burden of history, religion, culture, ritual, and memory. The article studies this ambivalence of language through a comparison of India and Switzerland, two quite different cases of relatively successful accommodation of linguistic diversity and discusses the constitutional means and policy measures that might enable a modern state to balance regional diversity and national unity in the face of the multi-ethnic challenge

Ambivalence · Argument (complex analysis) · Diversity (politics) · Ethnic group · Face (sociological concept) · Federalism · Language policy · Multilingualism · Negotiation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science) · Unity in diversity · Law · Minority Rights and Languages · Psychology · Social Psychology · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

• Symbiosis, re-use and evolution

  Subrata Κ Mitra, Subrata Mitra•Commonwealth and Comparative…•2010

  Incluir item

• Ethnic Conflict in the Modern World-System

  Open Access•Wilma A Dunaway•Journal of World-Systems Research•2003

  Incluir item

• Federalism and local governance

  Thaneshwar Bhusal, Michael G Breen•Regional & Federal Studies•2021

  Incluir item

• Language and National Identity in the Era of Globalization

  Open Access•Christof Demont‐heinrich, Christof Demont-Heinrich•Journal of Communication Inquiry•2005

  Incluir item

• Beyond the Racial Census

  Open Access•Eric S Mclaughlin•Comparative Political Studies•2007

  Incluir item