In 2002, CIMERA, the Tajik Centre for Citizenship Education (TCCE) and the Public Committee for Democratic Processes started implementing a project aimed at providing an informal platform for political discussion on the issue of centre-regions relations in Tajikistan. The project has been financed by the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In this framework several research activities were launched on topics related to regionalism and local governance, the results of which are presented in this publication. The first report by Zariv Aliev, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Tajikistan, deals with the legal and institutional perspective of the relations between centre and regions. The two following papers be Prof. Boygmatov and Dr. Avezov, try to illustrate these relations from the budget /fiscal and economic perspective. The paper by Dr. Saodat Olimova, presents the perceptions of “regionalism” by established political and social leaders and by a group of university students. The fifth report, prepared by Dr. Stephane Dudoignon, is looking at the logics of the Tajik political system as it has been working since the signature of the peace agreement between the Rahmonov government and the then United Tajik Opposition. Two papers by Sabine Freizer and Kamol Abdullaev have been added to the present publication on the issue of local governance that are complementary to the project's research reports. In a last paper Luigi De Martino, the project director presents his own analysis of some aspects of the Tajik political situation and of the perspectives for the future.