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This article addresses the debate about the relative utility of accommodative federalism as a method of conflict management in multinational states. Comparative scholarship on this issue assumes that territorial reform translates into political stability or instability through policy substance. This article tests that assumption against processes of institutional accommodation of Catalan and Quebecois demands for autonomy and recognition. The comparison demonstrates the absence of a linear relationship between institutional change and political instability. When autonomy for minority regions is extended without symbolic recognition, subsequent majority response unfolds in the policy arena, mostly through attempts to symmetrize autonomy arrangements (self-amplifying sequence). However, when the extension of territorial autonomy is combined with formal symbolic recognition, it paves the way for majority political backlash (reactive sequence). Open political opposition by a segment of majority political community, in turn, stimulates secessionist sentiment among members of minority community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiscal equalization is a key political issue in many federal countries, including Canada. Yet, relatively few scholars have paid systematic attention to the political dimensions of Canada’s federal equalization program. Taking an historical and institutionalist perspective, this article explores the politics of equalization policy in Canada, with a focus on the mid-2000s, a period when equalization policy suddenly became a major source of intergovernmental conflict. The main objective of the article is to explain why and how such political struggles over equalization developed. The explanation focuses on four factors: (i) the importance of executive discretion over the equalization program; (ii) the “inter-state” nature of Canadian federalism; (iii) the concentration of non-renewable natural resources in certain provinces; and (iv) the perceptions that surround the program. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]