This article examines Vladimir Putin's reforms to Russia's federal system since 2000. The initial rationale for the reforms was the need to strengthen the capacity of the central government after Boris Yeltsin had engaged in a controversial practice of negotiated federalism, granting federal units autonomy and asymmetrical rights and powers. this article considers the legacy of the Yeltsin administration and shows that some aspects of these reforms were indeed necessary in order to enforce federal law, the constitution and make inter-budgetary relations more stable. Nevertheless, by focusing attention on two recent reforms passed in 2003 - on regional government and local self-government - the author argues that Putin's vision of federalism overlooks some crucial aspects underpinning Russia's federal system, namely the existence of ethno-national minorities and the benefits of negotiated autonomy arrangements as a way of accomodating minority nationalism.

Russian Federation --- Putin --- federal system --- reform --- autonomy arrangements --- ethno-national minorities

Belgium and Bosnia can be understood as 'divided house' states, which contain proportionally similar groups with opposing views regarding whether the states should be more unitary or more decentralized. The Belgian example demonstrates that even where groups disagree on state structure, a mixture of various forms of group autonomy may facilitate stability and compromise within the state. Belgium addresses this dilemma in two ways: 1) non-territorial autonomous unites in the form of linguistic communities and 2) exclusive competencies for different units within the diverse Belgian state. this article argues that in Bosnia the rights of minorities in different territorial units, as well as refugee returns to areas where they are minorities, might be improved by structures with non-territorial autonomy that are similar to Belgian linguistic communities. Similar to Belgium, these non-territorial units might hold exclusive competencies for educational, linguistic, cultural, and religious matters, and enable more political representation of minority individuals. The author concludes by proposing that analysts should more carefully examine actual examples from states with similarly divided populations in order to advocate working models for Bosnia.

Belgium --- Bosnia --- Bosnia-Herzegovina --- autonomy arrangements --- proposal