| Previous attempts to explain regional autonomy mobilization have produced inconsistent and contradictory findings. Scholars disagree on the role that cultural, economic and political mechanisms play in regional politicians' demands for autonomy, and in the popular appeal of autonomist agendas. Moreover, lack of scholarly consensus hinders the efforts of policy-makers in shaping appropriate institutional responses to demands raised by supporters of autonomy and self-determination. For every policy recommendation, there are studies showing that it would either work well or work terribly. This project contributes to the explanation of regional autonomy mobilization in three ways.; First, it offers a theoretical synthesis of cultural, economic and political factors into a framework that specifies their interdependence. Second, it evaluates systematically theoretical propositions using an agent-based simulation methodology (ABM). Third, it substantiates these explanations with data collected across 113 regions in nine European states. Results lend strong support to the theoretical synthesis. The effects of cultural, economic and political factors are interdependent---for example, the effect of cultural differences on mobilization depends on economic strength of a region---as evidenced in both simulations and real-world data. The project concludes with highlighting the utility of ABM to complement other approaches to the study of complex sociopolitical phenomena. |
