Cantonization
Cantonization or cantonalization refers to the division of a state into more or less independent regions - mostly based on the model of the Swiss cantons . It goes hand in hand with the transfer of national competences to the responsibility of the regions or cantons. In a positive sense, it means decentralization and federalization or the transformation of a centrally administered unitary state into a federation or confederation . In a negative sense, cantonalization means the more or less complete dissolution of a state and its factual break-up into several regions that are so independent that one can hardly speak of an overall state capable of acting.
The division into cantons can be based on ethnic, religious, historical, geographical or democratic aspects. If necessary, internal contradictions and conflicts should be balanced and pacified. The first historical examples include the cantonalization of the First Spanish Republic in the 19th century. In the recent past, the cantonalization of Bosnia (e.g. the Vance-Owen Plan , which in a weakened form actually led to the cantonalization of Bosnia ), Kosovo or Iraq has been discussed repeatedly .
literature
- José Juan Gonzáles Encinar: An asymmetrical federal state , In: Dieter Nohlen, José Juan Gonzáles Encinar: The State of the Autonomous Communities in Spain , page 229. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1992
- Rainer Mattern: Kosovo - Situation of the Minorities , pages 5 and 7. Swiss Refugee Aid, Bern 2003
- Roland Sturm: On the reform of the Federal Council , Federal Agency for Civic Education of July 7, 2003
- Stefan Dehnert: Promotion of Democracy in Post-Conflict Societies - Concordance Democracy as a Conflict Resolution Model? , Pages 11 and 14. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Berlin 2008
- Irene Gerlach: Federal Republic of Germany - Development, Structures and Actors of a Political System , page 260f. Publishing house for social sciences, Wiesbaden 2010
- Jens Reuter: Yugoslavia , In: Cord Jakobeit: Overall Europe - Analyzes, Problems and Development Perspectives , page 302. Springer-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2013