Self-Governance & Power-Sharing
Overview
Territorial autonomy and political power-sharing schemes continue to be widely used instruments for resolving violent conflicts in divided societies. The scholarly literature features numerous studies as to why some conflict-regulating autonomy arrangements work while others don't; how success can be measured empirically; and what lessons can be drawn for practical conflict resolution. In our current day and age, a new variable has emerged that undermines many of these presuppositions. Democratic backsliding as well as outright autocratization has cast a shadow over the legitimacy and effectiveness of power-sharing arrangements. This has led in some cases to local conflicts in autonomous regions. How is the current global wave of autocratization affecting “minority nations”? Under what conditions does subnational autocracy result in new ethnic conflicts? What impact do various institutional designs have on these dangers?
Projects
Events
Workshop on “Navigating Change. The Resilience of Territorial Autonomy” (with Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, Global Autonomy Network Group). MORE.
Related Publications
Schulte, Felix, and Gene Carolan. 2024. “What’s Law Got to Do with It? How the Degree of Legalization Affects the Durability of Post-Conflict Autonomy Agreements.” Ethnopolitics 23 (4): 409–34. doi: 10.1080/17449057.2023.2207876. MORE
Schulte, Felix. 2023. Frieden durch Selbstbestimmung: Erfolg und Scheitern territorialer Autonomie. Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-24343-1. MORE
Schulte, Felix, and Christoph Trinn. 2022. “Self-Rule and Intrastate Conflict Risk in Divided Societies: A Configurational Analysis of Consociational Institutions.” Swiss Political Science Review 28(3): 413–32. doi: 10.1111/spsr.12514. MORE
Trinn, Christoph, and Felix Schulte. 2022. “Untangling Territorial Self-Governance – New Typology and Data.” Regional & Federal Studies 32(1): 1–25. doi: 10.1080/13597566.2020.1795837. MORE
Schulte, Felix. 2020. Peace through Self-Determination: Success and Failure of Territorial Autonomy. Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-37587-4. MORE
Schulte, Felix. 2019. “Publication and Collaboration Patterns in Autonomy Research – A Bibliometric Analysis.” Journal of Autonomy and Security Studies 3(2): 38–65. MORE
Schulte, Felix. 2018. “The More, The Better? Assessing the Scope of Regional Autonomy as a Key Condition for Ethnic Conflict Regulation.” International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 25(1): 84–111. doi: 10.1163/15718115-02501001. MORE
Schulte, Felix. 2018. “Toward a Multi-Causal Model of Successful Conflict Regulation through Territorial Self-Government: Lessons from South Tyrol.” Austrian Journal of Political Science 47(4): 33–43. doi:10.15203/ozp.2660.vol47iss4. MORE