Ethnic Struggle, Coexistence, and Democratization in Eastern Europe

Argues that protest by ethnic Hungarians in Romania and Slovakia brought about policy changes and integrated Hungarian minorities into the democratic process.

Sherrill Stroschein (Author)

9781107005242, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 May 2012

312 pages, 33 b/w illus. 1 map 17 tables
24 x 16.3 x 2.4 cm, 0.6 kg

"Sherrill Stroschein's book is a valuable read for comparative scholars and area experts … the volume is useful, provoking, and responsibly presented."
Richard P. Farkas, DePaul University, Slavic Review

In societies divided on ethnic and religious lines, problems of democracy are magnified – particularly where groups are mobilized into parties. With the principle of majority rule, minorities should be less willing to endorse democratic institutions where their parties persistently lose elections. While such problems should also hamper transitions to democracy, several diverse Eastern European states have formed democracies even under these conditions. In this book, Sherrill Stroschein argues that sustained protest and contention by ethnic Hungarians in Romania and Slovakia brought concessions on policies that they could not achieve through the ballot box, in contrast to Transcarpathia, Ukraine. In Romania and Slovakia, contention during the 1990s made each group accustomed to each other's claims and aware of the degree to which each could push its own. Ethnic contention became a de facto deliberative process that fostered a moderation of group stances, allowing democratic consolidation to slowly and organically take root.

1. Ethnic protest, moderation, and democratization
2. Time, process, and events in democratization
3. Ethnic contention in context
4. Local violence and uncertainty in Târgu Mure?, 1990
5. The power of symbols: Romanians, Hungarians, and King Mathias in Cluj
6. Forging language laws: schools and sign wars
7. Debating local governance: autonomy, local control, and minority enclaves
8. Implications of group interaction.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies [JFSL1], Social & political philosophy [HPS]