The Principle of Equality in Diverse States: Reconciling Autonomy with Equal Rights and Opportunities

by Eva Maria Belser, Sandra Egli, Thea Bächler

Implementing the principle of equality is particularly challenging in federal or decentralised states. Autonomy rights guaranteed to regions or to minorities allow for diversity but question the equality of citizens. While diversity is crucial for legitimate governance in heterogeneous states, it jeopardises equal rights and opportunities. In states based on power-sharing the conceptualisation and implementation of equality therefore raises fundamental questions. How much equality between regional regimes or the rights and freedoms of individuals does the unity of a state require? And how much inequality must be tolerated? This book examines different approaches by which states characterised by federal or decentralised arrangements reconcile equality and autonomy. In case studies from five continents, leading experts analyse the challenges of ensuring institutional, social and economic equality whilst respecting the competences of regions and the rights of groups.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9004394605
• ISBN13: 9789004394605
• Release Date: June 2021
• Publisher: Brill Nijhoff
• Length: 460 Pages