The Politics Of National Minority Participation In Post Communist Societies State Building Democracy And Ethnic Mobilization

With the upsurge of nationalist sentiment in post-communist societies, the problem of political rights for ethnic minorities became a dangerous flashpoint. The introduction of electoral competition, the rewriting of constitutions, the breakup of federations, the weakness of civic institutions, and the social and economic dislocations associated with marketization have all contributed to the salience of majority-minority relations. This collection systematically analyzes different models of minority politics in Eastern Europe, in an effort to understand why tensions are manageable in some contexts, uncontainable in others. Anchoring the volume are essays by Carlos Flores Juberias on electoral systems, and Janusz Bugajski on national minority parties. Six case studies examine the interaction of different types of institutional arrangements (which structure political participation) and different demographic conditions (ethnic balances and territorial concentrations) in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, and Romania. Framing these studies are overviews by the editors and by Jack Snyder.

With the upsurge of nationalist sentiment in post-communist societies, the problem of political rights for ethnic minorities became a dangerous flashpoint. The introduction of electoral competition, the rewriting of constitutions, the breakup of federations, the weakness of civic institutions, and the social and economic dislocations associated with marketization have all contributed to the salience of majority-minority relations. This collection systematically analyzes different models of minority politics in Eastern Europe, in an effort to understand why tensions are manageable in some contexts, uncontainable in others. Anchoring the volume are essays by Carlos Flores Juberias on electoral systems, and Janusz Bugajski on national minority parties. Six case studies examine the interaction of different types of institutional arrangements (which structure political participation) and different demographic conditions (ethnic balances and territorial concentrations) in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, and Romania. Framing these studies are overviews by the editors and by Jack Snyder.

The Soviet Union encompassed dozens of nationalities and ethnicities, and in the wake of its collapse, the politics of ethnicity within its former borders and throughout Eastern Europe have undergone tremendous changes. In this book, Zoltan Barany and Robert G. Moser bring together eminent scholars whose theoretically diverse and empirically rich research examines various facets of ethnicity in postcommunist Europe and Eurasia: ethnic identity and culture, mobilization, parties and voting, conflict, and ethnic migration. The contributors consider how ethnic forces have influenced political outcomes that range from voting to violence and protest mobilization to language acquisition. Conversely, each chapter demonstrates that political behavior itself has an impact on the forms and strength of ethnic identity. Thus, ethnicity is deemed to be a contested, malleable, and constructed force rather than a static characteristic inherent in the attributes of groups and individuals with a common religion, race, or national origin.

This book examines the political and social transformation of post-communist states. With a focus on minority integration, the author evaluates the interaction between state and society, illustrating how successful dialogue between the two can result in successful state-building. Current studies of post-communist Central and Eastern Europe tend to view minorities as recipients of integration rather than actors. As a result, minority agency is largely unrecognised in state- and nation-building processes. In contrast, this book analyses both institutional and actor perspectives to understand how political institutions and societal structures constrain but also generate minority group agency. Providing up-to-date analyses of most recent developments in integration policies in European liberal nation-states at the national, sub-state and European level policymaking, the author compares the cases of Estonia and Hungary to develop a framework to critically evaluate minority and interethnic relations with the state and society more widely. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, international relations, comparative politics, sociology, Central and Eastern European politics, post-communism, and minority politics.

This book presents various models of minority participation through political parties in post-communist Europe, based on the experiences of Hungarians in Slovakia and Romania, and Albanians in Macedonia.

Inder Singh examines why international organizations including the UN, OSCE, and Council of Europe advocated democratic governance, based on the rule of law and respect for human and minority rights, as the method by which states should try to accommodate their ethnically mixed populations. She discusses how realistic this advice has been, given the tension between the principle of the sovereignty of states and their international obligations, and the extent to which democratization had made for ethnic and political stability in post-communist Europe. Inder Singh demonstrates that this advocacy of democracy to handle ethnic diversity questions the perception of nationalism as a cause of war and disorder. This pathbreaking study will be of appeal to academics and policy makers interested in how the management of ethnic diversity through democracy can enhance domestic and international security.

This Commentary provides the reader with a review of international standards and practice relating to the political participation of minorities. Political participation has been increasingly recognized as a foundational issue in the debate about minority rights. It is argued that minorities are more likely to feel co-ownership in the state if they have the opportunity to participate freely and effectively in all aspects of its governance, and that sustained and meaningful engagement will guard against the sense of alienation and exclusion among minorities that often emerges in ethnically divided societies. Taking as its starting point the two most important standard-setting documents in the field - the Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Public Life, developed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Council of Europe's Thematic Commentary on the Issue of Political Participation of Minorities - the Commentary locates the international legal entitlement to political participation within the wider context of the right to democratic governance. It also considers effective participation in relation to the right to full and effective equality, as well as the legal entrenchment of these provisions and implementation mechanisms. Individual chapters then consider each of the principal mechanisms aimed at enhancing political participation, ranging from procedures covering minority representation in political institutions to consultative mechanisms and autonomy solutions. The Commentary draws on a team of experts, all of whom are recognized authorities in this specialized area of minority issues.

The controversial work of Amy Chua argues that, as rapid modernization, industrialization, technological change and globalization bring about fundamental changes in national, ethnic and class identities, especially in developing countries, there is a danger that the laissez-faire capitalist system will cause serious racial conflagration, especially in societies where there is ethnic minority market dominance, combined with ethno-nationalist-type politicians who mobilize support from ethnic majority communities by drawing attention to inequalities in wealth distribution. This controversial work goes on to argue for an authoritarian political system, with curbs against the corporate expansion of enterprises owned by ethnic minorities, until parity in equity ownership among all communities is achieved. This book tests the assumptions behind these arguments, discussing ethnic communities, identity, economy, society and state, and the links between them, in a range of countries in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, and diaspora communities of Asian peoples in the West. It demonstrates that identity transformation occurs as generations of minority communities succeed each other, that old discourses of fixed origins which are assumed to bind ethnic communities into cohesive wholes do not apply, that there are very extensive inter-linkages in the daily activities of people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, that affirmative action-type policies along racial lines can undermine overall societal cohesion, and that there is no case for limiting democracy until economic equity is achieved. This is a rich, important book, with huge implications for economic development and for states throughout the world as multi-ethnic societies world-wide become more extensive and more complicated.

Spheres of Global Justice analyzes six of the most important and controversial spheres of global justice, each concerning a specific global social good. These spheres are democratic participation, migrations, cultural minorities, economic justice, social justice, and intergenerational justice. Together they constitute two constellations dealt with, in this collection of essays by leading scholars, in two different volumes: Global Challenges to Liberal Democracy and Fair Distribution. These essays illustrate each of the spheres, delving into their differences, commonalities, collisions and interconnections. Unlike many writings on global justice, Spheres of Global Justice does not content itself with describing the painful and advantageous effects of the globalization process as being ipso facto a global injustice or a just global order. Rather, this multidisciplinary collection of essays, from a pluralist inspiration, combines empirical analysis with theoretical approaches and ethical principles, paying close attention to two aspects of the effects of the globalization process. These aspects are the causal relationships that lead to such effects and the kinds of obligations, or of normative relationships between global rights and correlative duties, that applies to each specific individual case. This volume illustrates how diverse global obligations are, and how they can be, grounded in diverse relationships (identity, ability to provide help, causal responsibility, past injustices, protection of agency and promotion of independence, etc.). These essays also demonstrate that an ethical global approach has not only international or transnational, but also domestic, local and interpersonal dimensions.

This book examines whether we are moving towards an integrated regional system of legal provision for minorities. It illustrates the tension between newer member states, many of which have an interest in seeing minority issues addressed, and established members, which remain hesitant in committing themselves fully to a minority rights regime.