ABSTRACT
Although it will mostly deal with issues of justice, this chapter will not neglect the matter of stability. Indeed, over the course of the twentieth century in the social and political sciences, several authors have attempted to design a coherent set of institutions to maintain political stability in plural societies, however too few have explored the need for justice. It is generally argued here that the objectives sought through such endeavours should never be limited to stability as we are reminded too frequently by the poor fate of peoples in less democratic settings. However, key developments in the scholarship of the last decade, illustrated in the works of Michael Keating and John McGarry, have shown that in complex federal regimes characterized by evolving tensions between majority and minority nationalisms, the arguments about justice must nevertheless be careful about the requirements of stability. In this affair, as often occurs in the theory and practice of politics, the painstaking search for balance always remains crucial.
