Abstract
The research deals with the following question: What are the legal factors at the basis of constitutional design that can provide determinant conditions to explain the different intensity of constitutional asymmetries in multi-tiered systems?
Societies divided along ethnic, religious, linguistic, or cultural lines give rise to challenges of highly practical importance. In fact, the tension between ethnocultural groups may either result in violence (permanent discrimination, civil conflict, ethnic cleansing, genocide) or, even in the absence of violence, have a corrosive effect on the political dynamics of the State, creating stalemate in political institutions or even constitutional crisis. The solutions proposed by academics to address these challenges revolve around two main approaches: integration and accommodation. My first assumption is that asymmetric federalism provides an effective synthesis of the two main approaches, since it presents features of both, and it provides the flexibility that a multinational State requires. My second assumption is that asymmetric federal systems have different intensity of constitutional asymmetries, each having different impacts on the political system. Therefore, the aim of research is to understand whether it is possible to explain the different intensity of constitutional asymmetries. This will be achieved through a model based on a series of legal factors which are distinctive elements of constitutional design for divided societies, and that may lead to constitutional asymmetries. To do so, the research will adopt an unusual methodology for the legal field, namely Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA).
The ultimate objective of the research would be to provide a flexible model of constitutional engineering. According to the model, it would be possible to determine the intensity of constitutional asymmetries to apply in different multinational States, thanks to the legal analysis of the results emerged by the QCA. Exploring alternative solutions for divided societies could be of shared interest for academic scholars and policymakers for two reasons. The first is that many of these multinational states are in the European Union, which itself may be considered a multinational "entity", therefore European scholars and policymakers may need a new perspective to deal effectively with these issues. The second is that many others are situated in deeply unstable areas of the world, namely in the Middle East (e.g., Iraq, Afghanistan), and it is crucial to understand what model of constitutional design and what degree of asymmetries to apply in a post-conflict environment.
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