He outlined the main elements of the new proposals, including details of devolved powers, constitutional safeguards and "consociational" arrangements, such as the need for parallel consent from different communities.

The research will examine two main approaches to the distribution of power in ethnically segmented societies: majoritarian electoral reforms that reward moderation and plurality in party systems, encourage vote pooling and punish ethnic sectarianism; and consociational forms of government that draw ethnically defined factions into power-sharing arrangements.