The project aims at identifying conditions of ethnic regional autonomy’s effectiveness in achieving and maintaining a balance in interethnic relations, securing the state integrity and the rights of ethnic minorities. Granting territorially concentrated ethnic group regional autonomy is considered in contemporary world as one of the most common way to prevent, manage and resolve ethnic conflicts. As a political institution, ethnic regional autonomy is an almost perfect from a theoretical point of view but incredibly difficult in practical realization instrument of maintaining a balance in interethnic relations. The project focuses on the global experience of ethnic regional autonomies, which are examined in a broad comparative perspective from the view of identifying opportunities for the application of the global experience to Russian conditions.

The project is supported by the Russian Science Foundation under Grant №15-18-00034 and carried out by the group of researchers from Perm University (Political Science Department) and Perm Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Department of Political Institutions and Processes).

The project is based on the combination of quantitative (large-N) and qualitative (small-N) comparative studies. For the quantitative analysis the database of all cases of the world ethnic regional autonomies (ERAD – Ethnic Regional Autonomies Database) has been created. The Atlas of the World Ethnic Regional Autonomies brings together, systematizes, and presents reach information in the field for academics, students and the general public. Some publications have been prepared as the result of the project implementation.