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Decentralization and Conflict Prevention

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies

Synonyms

Ethnofederalism; Fiscal decentralization; Political decentralization; Secessionism

Definition

Decentralization commonly refers to the release of power and authority from central government to lower tiers of government to make them administratively and financially less dependent on the central government. Decentralization can take up fiscal, administrative, and political forms, it could be arranged symmetrically or asymmetrically at subnational level, and it can occur both in federal and non-federal states. Decentralization is widely endorsed by international organizations and policymakers to mitigate inter-ethnic conflicts and secessionist movements. The idea is that by giving groups and regional authorities the control over their own political, social, and economic affairs, it is possible to undercut the conditions cultivating ethnic conflicts and secessionist tendencies. However, the theoretical and empirical studies fall short to verify if decentralization can indeed...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. KU Leuven Public Governance Institute, Leuven, Belgium

    Evrim Tan

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  1. Evrim Tan
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Correspondence to Evrim Tan .

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    Sandra Pogodda

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Tan, E. (2020). Decentralization and Conflict Prevention. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_106-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_106-1

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