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Law and Politics
Reference:

Kochetkov, E.E. The influence of institutions of asymmetric federalism on the stabilization of federal and regional policy

Abstract: This article represents a theoretical overview of the concept of asymmetrical federalism in multinational states. Asymmetry is shown as a tool of federation conservation, although it is an unstable institution in that it affects all the participants of political actions to some extent. In this regard the subject of research is the process of confrontation between the center and the national minorities, obviously threatening the existing political system; the decision of the center on providing the asymmetric entities with autonomy can lead to mutually beneficial cooperation. The author uses the argument as a game-theoretic framework, linking the strategic goals of the federal and regional elites with the issues of nationwide stability. Particularly in view of the importance of the creation and consolidation of asymmetric institutions, the institutional approach is also used in this article. The scientific novelty of this study is that asymmetric federalism can be represented as a “nested (nesting) game”, where the events, occurring within the ethno-national segment, determine the situation across the whole federation. It is assumed that the rules of asymmetrical federalism are primarily not stable, in view of the fact that they affect all the participants of the political process in the State. This approach illustrates the analysis of the development of Russian federalism. The author of the article illustrates the theoretical ideas on the example of analysis of the Russian federal institutions established in the 1990s during the negotiations between the center and regional separatist minority elites.

Keywords:

asymmetric federalism, institutions, federation stability, multinational state, Russian federalism, “nested (nesting) game”, ethno-nationalism, regions, separatism and national minorities.

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