Partial decentralization as a way to prevent secessionist conflict

The stability of multi-level governments

“…We argue that in a more decentralized government system it is more likely that a friendly separation follows a regional protest whereas in heavily centralized countries the status quo is more likely to survive the conflict produced by possible protests. This result is shown by Flamand (2019) for governments with cultural and economic motives, and we reproduce it here for a general payoff structure.…”

Constitutions, federalism, and national integration

“…Substituting the value of z L (a), each region utility is described by 23 E [U j ( ; a)] = Y 0 j +F j 1…”

“…Regions could enter in an expanding or contracting growth path, and decisions at the constitutional stage would be based on the probability of these two possibilities. 23 Where 1 + + 2 + ::: = 1 1 and 1 + 2 + 3 2 + ::: = 1…”

A Dynamic Theory of Secession

“…9 Our model diers in several important dimensions from Spolaore (2008)'s: Our setup is dynamic, it includes the option of compensating transfers and allows for the groups having dierent productivities per capita. See also Flamand (2016), who complements Spolaore's model by analyzing the eect of inequality on the conict equilibrium, and considers the possibility of using partial decentralization as a way to prevent conict. situations are those in which mineral resources are concentrated in the minority region, leading to secessionist pressures.…”