Self-Determination in Western Democracies ― Aboriginal Politics in a Comparative Perspective

This interdisciplinary study offers an analytical and theoretical framework for understanding the dynamics of political change and self-determination when indigenous people assert claims of aboriginal status. Werther's findings contradict existing ideas about the location of sovereignty and the basis of political rights in six western democracies, and he analyzes how certain people who represent less than 2 percent of the population, who are poor, dispersed, and on the economic and political periphery of their nations have been able to extract important legislative and constitutional concessions and greater self-determination from large, wealthy, and powerful ethno-national groups.

GUNTRAM F. A. WERTHER is Associate Professor of International Politics and Director, Global Research and Development Institute, Western International University.