DECENTRALIZATION IN MULTIETHNIC STATES
DECENTRALIZATION IN MULTIETHNIC STATES

Summary/Abstract: Decentralization is of itself a relative rather than absolute concept, which can be understood only “against either different normative models or different practical starting points”. In Central and Eastern Europe it has proved more difficult to solve conflicts in a peaceful way. During the Communist period, ethnic tensions were suppressed and they broke out all the more violently when the authorities lost the capacity to control the situation by force. The process of decentralization in Romania has been a process with a stop-and-go cycle, not a gradual policy improvement process. Decentralization often advanced more due to international pressures than driven by the convictions of local politicians or voluntary decisions of the central government.

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