Some States undertake territorial subdivision to make it possible for compactly settled minorities to have greater influence over political, social and economic decisions affecting their members.

Influence diagram Much of the information in a decision tree can be represented more compactly as an influence diagram, focusing attention on the issues and relationships between events.

Should, however, some new minorities settle compactly together in a region of the country and in large number, there is no reason to treat them differently from old minorities.

The mechanisms chosen have to take into account whether the persons belonging to the minority in question live dispersed or in compactly settled groups, whether the minority is small or large, or an old or a new minority.

The steps required in these regards depend on a number of variable factors. Of significance will be the size of the group and the nature of its settlement, i.e. whether it lives compactly together or is dispersed throughout the country.

Those who live compactly together in a part of the State territory may be entitled to rights regarding the use of language, and street and place names which are different from those who are dispersed, and may in some circumstances be entitled to some kind of autonomy.