Federalism and Ethnic Conflict Regulation in India and Pakistan

What accounts for different outcomes in managing ethnic conflict in India and Pakistan? Katharine Adeney demonstrates that institutional design is the most important explanatory variable in understanding the different intensity and types of conflict in the two countries rather than the role of religion. Adeney focuses on the rationale behind the creation and the different designs of federal and consociational structures in the two countries, as well as interweaves historical narrative with an analysis of their salient cleavages, the politics of institutional design and ethnic conflict regulation. Developing this theme further, she examines the extent to which previous constitutional choices explain current day conflicts.