DIVIDE Project

DIVIDE examines how secession referendums affect ethnic and national identities, relationships between the affected groups, and the political communities they belong to. Hence, secession referendums bring questions of territory, belonging, and political boundaries into public debate. More specifically, campaigns and referendum outcomes might polarize national and ethnic identities or resolve territorial disputes and hence pacify intergroup conflict. DIVIDE studies these processes and their consequences within democratic societies.

The project brings together research on ethnic and national identity, intergroup relations, political conflict, and direct democracy. It examines secessionist politics across established democracies across different levels of governance including the supranational level (e.g. Brexit), the national level (e.g. Canada), and the local level (e.g. the Swiss Jura) and it investigates different stakeholder groups including majorities and minorities in the affected territories. Using survey research, comparative analysis, and causal research designs, DIVIDE investigates both the immediate and longer-term effects of secession referendums.

DIVIDE is based at Franklin University Switzerland and is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) through project 10003605. The research grant amounts to CHF 997,508 and covers the period from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2029.