A Rational Choice Approach to Political Regionalism

Why do groups want to secede and where are we most likely to see demands for self-determination? We propose an economic explanation whereby a tradeoff between income and sovereignty implies that, other things being equal, richer regions are more likely to want more autonomy and conflict arises due to a disparity between desired and actual levels of sovereignty. We provide simple empirical tests using new data collected at the level of second-tier administrative subdivisions in forty eight decentralized countries. We find a positive association between, on the one hand, relative regional income, regional population share, natural resource endowment, and regional inter-personal inequality and, on the other hand, observed sovereignty levels. Ethnically distinct regions have lower sovereignty, but this association is only conditional on controlling for the interactive effects between ethnic distinctiveness and regional inter-personal inequality.

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“…6 See Gurr (2000); Gurr and Moore (1997);Horowitz (1985). 7 See Brustein (1988);Meadwell (1991). 8 Hechter (2001;1975).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We do not exclude nonviolent demands or regionalist demands because that would amount to restricting the analysis on the basis of an assumption that they have different 13 See Meadwell (1991) and Bunce (1999) with reference to Yugoslavia. On elite incentives in regional parties and movements as they bargain over representation at the center, see Sorens (2005).…”

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confidence: 99%

Explaining the Demand for Sovereignty

Milanović

Sambanis

2011

Policy Research Working Papers

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“…However, detailed and exact predictions following from these discussions are surprisingly rare and generally under-specified. For example, both Newman (1996) and Meadwell (1991) point to the importance of majoritarian and consociational decision-making processes for an understanding of regional autonomy movements, but failed to provide clear hypotheses (see also Keating, 1998). For example, Newman (1996) merely states that '[t]he fate of specific ethnoregional movements emerges from the interactions among the sources of these ethnoregional conflicts and existing political institutions' (p. 4), without specifying the exact relation between types of institutions and the fate of movements.…”

Section: Political Factorsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Regionalist Challenges to European States: A Quantitative Assessment

Houten

2007

Ethnopolitics

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Regional autonomy demands are widespread in Western Europe and are often seen as a significant challenge to the authority of the European 'nation states'. This article formulates and tests possible explanations for variation in such demands in six Western European countries. As suggested by the existing literature, several cultural and economic characteristics of regions are associated with autonomy demands. To account for further variation and differences in specific demands, however, it is necessary to focus on the nature of party competition in a region. Autonomy demands will be strong if several regionally organized parties compete against each other and more restrained if regional and national parties are in competition. This suggests that regionalism is generally less consequential for existing state structures than often presumed. It seriously challenges state structures only under certain political conditions.

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“…7 Meadwell is an exception; in an apparently littlenoticed 1991 article, he distinguished between secessionists, who seek full political independence as their primary aim, and regionalists, who have a "mixed preference ordering," favoring regional autonomy over the status quo, but the status quo over independence. 8 Following Meadwell, we might say that over the three options, independence, autonomy, and the status quo, the following four "minority nationalist" preference orderings are possible:…”

Section: Downloaded By [Miami University Libraries] At 06:26 03 Octobmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regionalists Against Secession: The Political Economy of Territory in Advanced Democracies

Sorens

2008

Nationalism and Ethnic Politics

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A Rational Choice Approach to Political Regionalism

Cited by 19 publications

References 12 publications

Explaining the Demand for Sovereignty

Explaining the Demand for Sovereignty

Regionalist Challenges to European States: A Quantitative Assessment

Regionalists Against Secession: The Political Economy of Territory in Advanced Democracies

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