CRASSH

This paper explores the future spatial and political configuration of autonomy in Nicaragua, mainly in terms of the question of whether multiethnic regional models of autonomy, such as the one that was implemented in Nicaragua in the 1980s, can best  accomplish the goals of promoting solidarity, enabling the  preservation of culture, and making possible meaningful political self- government when multiple subordinated groups are present in the same  heterogeneous geographic space. Alternatively, are these goals better achieved through the creation of separate national homelands for each ethnic/racial group? Is a model of overlapping, multiple autonomies a better option? Are certain models of autonomy more conducive to some of these goals than others? And on what grounds are arguments for either one made? What are the specific politics of representation and accounts of presence (historical, cultural, territorial) that undergird each of these models of autonomy? These are some of the key questions that indigenous and Afro-descendant groups are currently confronting in Nicaragua with regards to the future of autonomy. The central focus of this paper will thus be to consider how Nicaragua’s experiences with autonomy complicate the assumptions and prescriptions in theories of multiculturalism about the institutional design of autonomy for minority racial-cultural groups.