Autonomy and Ethnicity: Negotiating Competing Claims in Multi-Ethnic States

This book, first published in 2000, deals with one of the most urgent problems of contemporary times: the political organisation of multi-ethnic states. Most major conflicts of our time are internal to the state and revolve around the claims of access to or the redesign of the state. Responses to ethnic conflicts have ranged from oppression and ethnic cleansing to accommodations of ethnic claims through affirmative policies, special forms of representation, power sharing, and the integration of minorities. One of the most sought after, and resisted, devices for conflict management is autonomy. Within an overarching framework that examines different understandings of ethnic consciousness and the variety of territorial autonomies, the authors examine the experiences of spatial distribution of power in Canada, India, China, South Africa, Ethiopia, PNG, Spain, the former Yugoslavia, Cyprus, Sri Lanka and Australia.