The Politics of National minority Participation in Post-Communist Europe: State-building, Democracy and Ethnic Mobilization

Description

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. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Contributors Foreword Acknowledgments PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. National Minorities and Political Development in Post-Communist Europe PART II: THE POLITICS ETHNIC MAJORITIES MAKE 2. Post-Communist Electoral Systems and National Minorities: A Dilemma in Five Paradigms 3. Nationalist Majority Parties: The Anatomy of Ethnic Domination in Central and Eastern Europe PART III: THE POLITICS OF MOBILIZATION AGAINST THE NATION-STATE 4. The Political Party as National Holding Company: The Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania 5. Post-Imperial Ethnocracy and the Russophone Minorities of Estonia and Latvia PART IV: THE ETHNOPOLITICS OF WEAK STATES AND NATIONS 6. The Greek Minority in Albania: Ethnic Politics in a Pre-National State 7. The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe: Constructing a Stateless Nation PART V: THE POLITICS OF DECLINING ETHNIC SALIENCE 8. Ethnic War and Disempowerment: The Serb Minority in Croatia 9. Emigration and the Politics of Identity: The Turkish Minority in Bulgaria PART VI: CONCLUSION 10. Managing Ethnopolitics in Eastern Europe: An Assessment of Institutional Approaches Index