Tove H. Malloy
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NTA and Decentralization. Ethno-Cultural Diversity Governance
In our new volume, Tove H. Malloy and Levente Salat (eds.), Non-Territorial Autonomy and Decentralization. Ethno-Cultural Diversity Governance, we describe and analyze alternative and emerging models of non-territorial autonomy (NTA), particularly in relation to decentralization. We wanted to push the NTA debate in new directions by offering a re-conceptualization based on ethno-cultural bottom-up decentralized action that redefines autonomy into its true sense of autonomous action. Through description, critical analysis, and evaluation of several case studies, we assess together with the contributing authors, the potential for new paradigms within decentralized systems.
We apply two approaches to political decentralization which add to the theoretical debate on NTA – network governance, which focuses on new dynamics in policy processes, and normative pluralism, which focuses on accommodating the distinctness of the groups through the subsidiarity principle with regard to their own affairs. Together with the contributors, we examine the potential ramifications of ethno-cultural NTA institutions acting within the wider framework of state institutions and assess the functions of these institutions as another dimension of decentralization and thus another ‘layer’ of democracy.
With contemporary examples from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and South Africa, as well as theoretical aspects of the conceptualization of autonomy, we try to offer a global perspective. For more about our volume, see Routledge’s website here.
Tove H. Malloy 