NATION BUILDING: FAVORING MULTICULTURALISM THROUGH FEDERALISM?

The paper analyses chances and paradoxes of federalism as a strategy to sustain nation building in multicultural societies, in particular those in post-ethnic war situations. The major hypothesis will be that there is no one-to-one relationship between federalism and communal peace, the latter being a condition sine qua non for nation building. The reasons lie in key challenges and paradoxes of federalism as a conflict-management device in the societies coming out of ethnic wars: Mistrust and intolerance intrinsically belong to identity conflicts; on the other hand, federalism as part and parcel of conflict transformation should be instrumental in building up trust and tolerance that are – paradoxically – a condition sine qua non for effective federal designs. Multicultural federalism can work only if it succeeds in democratically commanding a loyalty that would transcend cultural cleavages, i.e., if it democratically reconciles cultural and political pluralism. Such reconciliation is structurally unfeasible within a consequently liberal democratic set up.