Corsica's struggle for autonomy: historical roots, institutional changes, and current challenges

This paper offers an overview of Corsica's trajectory towards autonomy in the context of French centralism. It analyzes the institutional solutions that have been designed to meet the claims for self-rule of different generations of Corsican regionalists and nationalists. In offering a lengthy, detailed, and objective overview of the Corsicans' attempt to enshrine their autonomy status in the French Constitution, or to secede from France, it also looks at the evolving nature of France from a fully-fledged centralistic state to a unitary state with a considerable degree of asymmetric decentralization.