REFORMS-CONCESSIONS AS A RESPONSE OF STATES TO DEMANDS FOR SELF-DETERMINATION: FACTORS OF EFFECTIVENESS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17072/2218-1067-2025-3-112-121Keywords:
self-determination movements, institutional reforms, threat to territorial integrity, comparative analysisAbstract
When a politically significant self-determination movement (SDM) appears in a country, the territorial integrity of the state is threatened. Governments respond to this threat in different ways. Along with the policy of suppressing SDM, a typical strategy of states is to implement reforms aimed at making concessions to self-determination movements. Even suppressing SDM, the authorities often demonstrate a willingness to compromise. However, reforms-concessions do not always provide the desired results. The study of factors that influence on the effectiveness of reforms-concessions have been carried out using the logistic regression on empirical data from more than 100 reforms-concessions. The main assumptions developed on the ground of institutional approach have been confirmed: the “proportionality” of reforms-concessions to SDM claims, as well as the stability of the ratio of resources between the state and SDM actors, sustainability of their references after the reform have significant importance for the success of reforms-concessions. All this makes it possible to achieve a kind of institutional equilibrium as a result of the reform, under which the intensity of the conflict between the state and SDM decreases. At the same time, the analysis finds that the factors arising from the institutional approach to studying the effectiveness of reforms-concessions have greater explanatory power than “traditional” structural explanations.References
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