Re-negotiating the terms of accommodating cultural diversity forms a permanent task in multinational contexts. Despite the temporary nature of power-sharing arrangements and provisions of special recognition, little attention has been paid to patterns of negotiations and their impact on territorial dynamics over time. Tracing the path of negotiation patterns in different multinational democracies, the paper argues that moments of establishing patterns of negotiations form a critical juncture for the direction and speed of territorial dynamics. Reproducing and stabilizing a certain pattern of negotiation links future change to different types of dynamics. A reinforced bilateral pattern where negotiations take place between the center and a single substate, for example, forms a built-in mechanism for asymmetric decentralization. Catching-up processes occur in subsequent bilateral negotiations but without being able to stop the dynamic of renewed asymmetry in the next round. In order to trigger centralizing dynamics external shocks like the financial crisis are necessary in these cases. Applying a multilateral negotiation pattern or varying patterns over time, in comparison, keep power allocation symmetric among the substates and induce both centralizing and decentralizing dynamics. Multilateral negotiations, however, are more prone to run into deadlock and reduce the chances of achieving territorial reform at all. In consequence, keeping negotiation patterns flexible and avoiding a lock-in on one pattern causes federal trajectories that include multiple and counterbalancing dynamics but reduces the options in which change can be achieved.
