Shades of federalism - volume 1

Discussing and debating federalism, and its many shades, forms and sub-topics, has become an essential element of the political discourse in Myanmar.

Since the move to parliamentary democracy after the first free elections in 2010, and particularly since the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) between eight ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and the Tatmadaw in 2015, federalism has become an intense debate.
The short contributions in this volume look at some of the theoretical aspects in the debate on federalism. They discuss elements such as shared-rule and self-rule, the link to minority rights, linguistic rights’
protection and the potential of federalism to overcome violent confict. Each paper takes a particular view on an aspect of federalism, demonstrating its complexity, both in academic and in very practical terms.