Part II examines the tensions between normative claims for and against recognition and institutional and procedural forms of accommodation. In chapter 5, Dimitrios Karmis and Alain-G. Gagnon use a comparative study of Canada and Belgium since the 1960s to demonstrate both the high importance and the major difficulties of reaching a federal balance between unity and diversity in multinational societies. They argue that neither the pan-Canadianism strategy adopted by Trudeau in Canada, nor the constitutionalization of cultural and linguistic cloisonnement in Belgium, have led to a balance between unity and diversity. These processes, they suggest, have led to identity fragmentation, in Canada's case by an overemphasis on universalism, and in the case of Belgium by an excess of particularism. In short, neither outright denial nor ad hoc accommodation seems to be able to provide long-lasting just solutions. Attaining this delicate balance between universalism and particularism requires a thorough political engineering and a political will that are lacking at the present time.

In chapter 6 François Rocher, Christian Rouillard and André Lecours examine how political parties reflecting specific national identities have developed to challenge the constitutional and institutional frameworks of their states. They also argue that the transformations that these nationalist parties make to party systems may be an enduring source of instability. Specifically, they analyse the political reforms in Belgium, Spain and Canada in terms of the checks and balances installed to attain political stability. They come to the conclusion that not all reforms succeed in such a quest.