Minority Accommodation through Territorial and Non-Territorial Autonomy

Abstract

Abstract From the early notion of the millet system in the Ottoman Empire to the misconstrued notion of national cultural autonomy applied in post-Soviet states, autonomy arrangements have been adopted to abate separatism and dissent in multicultural societies. Governments have, albeit reluctantly, implemented autonomy in various forms in response to diversity and pluralism with the ultimate goal of securing social and territorial cohesion. Yet, policymakers remain uncomfortable with autonomy, and political scientists and legal scholars continue to relegate it to the list of ad hoc solutions. This book examines this conundrum in law and international relations with specific attention to non-territorial autonomy (NTA). The triadic nexus minority-territory-autonomy informs our understanding of NTA as a strategy for accommodating ethno-cultural diversity in modern societies. Autonomy is a notion transformed into liberal democracy and law from moral philosophy. Territory has held interstate relations hostage since before the Westphalian system. These are the main reasons why the nexus under scrutiny is in constant tension with itself. While the strategy of this book is to speak truth to the hegemonic view of the modern territorial system of state construction and international relations, the goal is to further the good application of NTA as a strategy for managing diversity. The book does this through a theoretical discussion that exposes the tensions and dialectics of the nexus, as well as through a presentation of the practical implementation of the two models in a number of countries covering three continents.