Asymmetrical federalism has often been proposed as an appropriate framework to allow for the co-existence and accommodation of ‘plurinational’ realities within the same state. Yet, the recent call for a referendum on independence in Scotland and Catalonia raise some questions about asymmetry and brings renewed academic interest to the understanding of the very notion of asymmetry and its implications in terms of viability and stability.
The proposed paper aims at providing new insights into the literature on asymmetrical federalism. To do so, I will re-examine well-known examples of asymmetrical autonomy in Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom, but offering a new perspective to them. Rather than focusing on the sub-state governments that have traditionally requested asymmetry, it will look at the rest regions and the conditions under which they are more likely to accept or reject asymmetry.
