The Conditions of Diversity in Multinational Democracies studies the many dimensions of diversity in multinational settings. The contributions, from leading experts from Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada, consider the theoretical, institutional, and legal conditions for the development of nations that exist within the boundaries of larger political institutions. They examine how various political regimes manage multiple demands for recognition and how their respective approaches toward diversity affect the stability of the state. Contributors include Alain-G. Gagnon, Montserrat Guibernau, Michael Keating, Peter A. Kraus, André Lecours, John Loughlin, Roderick A. Macdonald, Jocelyn Maclure, David McCrone, Kenneth McRoberts, Luis Moreno, François Rocher, Michel Seymour, Stephen Tierney, and Nadia Verrelli.

In this book, political scientists provide a collaborative study of multinational democracies and the difficulties in governing them.

Constitutional politics is exceptionally intense and unpredictable. It involves negotiations over the very nature of the state and the implications of self- determination. Multinational democracies face pressing challenges to the existing order because they are composed of communities with distinct cultures, histories, and aspirations, striving to coexist under mutually agreed-upon terms. Conflict over the recognition of these multiple identities and the distribution of power and resources is inevitable and, indeed, part of what defines democratic life in multinational societies. In Constitutional Politics in Multinational Democracies André Lecours, Nikola Brassard-Dion, and Guy Laforest bring together experts on multinational democracies to analyze the claims of minority nations about their political future and the responses they elicit through constitutional politics. Essays focus on the nature of these states and the actors and political process within them. This framework allows for a multidimensional examination of crucial political periods in these democracies by assessing what constitutional politics is, who is involved in it, and how it happens. Case studies include Catalonia and Spain, Puerto Rico and the United States, Scotland and the United Kingdom, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Quebec and the Métis People in Canada. Theoretically significant and empirically rich, Constitutional Politics in Multinational Democracies is a necessary read for any student of multinationalism.

For many years nationalism has been associated with political demands by minority nations that challenge the rights of the central state. However, over the last two decades many works have challenged this perspective, arguing that nationalism - as a political phenomenon - is likely to emerge among both majority and minority nations. In light of a renewed interest in the study of national Contemporary Majority Nationalism brings together a group of major scholars committed to making sense of this widespread phenomenon. To better illustrate the reality of majority nationalism and the way it has been expressed, authors combine analytical and comparative perspectives. In the first section, contributors highlight the paradox of majority nationalism and the ways in which collective identities become national identities. The second section offers in-depth case study analyses of France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Canada, and the United States. This book is an international project led by three members of the Research Group on Plurinational Societies based at Université du Québec à Montréal.

The essays in Law and Citizenship provide a framework for analyzing citizenship in an increasingly globalized world by addressing a number of fundamental questions. How are traditional notions of citizenship erecting borders against those who are excluded? What are the impacts of changing notions of state, borders, and participation on our concepts of citizenship? Within territorial borders, to what extent are citizens able to participate, given that the principles of accountability, transparency, and representativeness remain ideals? The contributors address the numerous implications of the concept of citizenship for public policy, international law, poverty law, immigration law, constitutional law, history, political science, and sociology.

Federal Democracies examines the evolution of the relationship between federalism and democracy. Taking the late 18th century US Federal Experience as its starting-point, the book uses the contributions of Calhoun, Bryce and Proudhon as 19th century conceptual prisms through which we can witness the challenges and changes made to the meaning of this relationship. The book then goes on to provide a series of case studies to examine contemporary examples of federalism and includes chapters on Canada, USA, Russia, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and the emerging European Union. It features two further case studies on Minority Nations and a Federal Europe, and concludes with two chapters providing comparative empirical and theoretical perspectives, and comparative reflections on federalism and democracy. Bringing together international experts in the field this book will be vital reading for students and scholars of federalism, comparative politics and government.

The theory and concept of multi-level governance (MLG) is a fairly recent one, emerging from the deepening integration of the European Union in the early 1990s and the development of free trade agreements around the world. MLG enlarges the traditional approaches, namely those of neo-institutionalism and multinational federalism, by offering a better understanding of the role of the state, regions and provinces. The book analyses the changes that have taken place as well as those that might take place in the future.