The Concept of Non-Territorial Autonomy: Origins, Developments, and Subtypes

Abstract

The aim of the chapter is to propose a possible framing of the NTA concept, considering the historical legacies by which the usage of the term is loaded, on the one hand, and the complex empirical realities the notion is expected to map, on the other hand. First, the idea of non-territoriality will be explored briefly, with highlight on the circumstances that bring about arrangements generally referred to when the NTA concept as an umbrella term is used. Then the origin and the semantic content of several subjacent terms—national autonomy, national cultural autonomyNCA (national cultural autonomy), cultural autonomy, personal autonomy, functional autonomy, administrative autonomy, consociationalism—will be discussed, together with the problems triggered by the concurrent attempts to provide precise definitions to the various institutional embodiments of the general NTA idea. The chapter will conclude with a brief assessment of the consequences for the NTA scholarship which follow from the two main limitations of the NTA notion: the underdetermination of the widely used concepts and the gap between theory and empirical realities.