Autonomy, secession and conflict 1

Lars-Erik Cederman, Simon Hug, and Julian Wucherpfennig  
Département de science politique et relations internationales,
Université de Genève
Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the
American Political Science Association
(San Francisco, September 1-4, 2015)

First version: February 2015, this version: Mar 6, 2015

Abstract

Whether granting regional autonomy to specific ethnic groups helps pacifying conflictual plural societies is hotly debated in the literature. In part this has to do with the scarcity of data on groups demanding and profiting from specific autonomy concessions. Based on a dataset covering detailed information on the type of autonomy granted to administrative subunits and data on which ethnic groups profit from these arrangements, we assess whether such institutional arrangements have the desired pacifying effect. To do so we rely on a formal model focusing on the interactions between a government and a group possibly demanding autonomy and/or secession. Based on this model we proceed by employing a strategic estimation of the structural form. This allows us to evaluate in a novel way the interdepencies among demands, concessions and conflict.

Footnotes:

1 T h i s i s a n e a r l y v e r s i o n o f a m o r e s p e c i f i c p a p e r d e a l i n g w i t h a u t o o m y , s e c e s s i o n a n d c o n f l i c t i n t h e c o n t e x t o f a s t r a t e g i c m o d e l . F i n a n c i a l s u p p o r t b y t h e S w i s s N a t i o n a l S c i e n c e F o u n d a t i o n ( G r a n t N o . 1 0 5 5 1 1 - 1 4 3 2 1 3 ) i s g r a t e f u l l y a c k n o w l e d g e d .



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