Institute for Ethnic and National Minority Studies Centre for Social Sciences Hungarian Academy of Sciences cordially invites you to a lecture on
 

Ethnic Politics in Europe: The Impact of Ideas and Minority Elite Strategies

A Comparative Study of Minority Policy in Romania, Slovakia, Austria and Ukraine

by Egor Fedotov MÖB Research Fellow (PhD Aberdeen, MA Oregon)
 

on Tuesday, the 14th February 2012 at 10 AM in United Library for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Library Hall (Budapest I., Országház u. 30., III. Floor)

Contact:
Bárány Zsófia, Dobos Balázs, Egor Fedotov
titkarsag@mtaki.hu efedotov31@gmail.com
061-224-6790

 

Abstract

The book project, which is based on my 2011 doctoral dissertation, explores the politics of minority language rights in Europe. In Romania and Slovakia, I focus on the Hungarian minorities, in Ukraine the Russian speakers, and in Austria, the Carinthian Slovenes. The puzzle which interests me in this work is why in some of these states political relations between ethnic groups have been more (or less) tense than in others.

The project’s main finding is that the political strategies of minority elites have affected profoundly political relations between groups and state policy. I argue that those strategies that are sensitive to compromise and politically-deemphasized solutions are most likely to allow state elites to implement minority-friendly policies.

That is, if minority elites pursue a consensual politics aimed at implementing minority language rights in a “moderate” and step-wise manner, then space will open up for their cooperation with mainstream titular parties. This cooperation in turn paves the way toward a more tolerant state policy vis-à-vis non-titular speakers. By contrast, if minority elites pursue a politics of confrontation, for example by stressing the goals of territorial and cultural autonomy and links with the minority homeland state, then policy deteriorates and relations between groups grow tense.

The study draws on 112 interviews conducted by the author in all the countries under study (including with 4 state leaders, 14 ministers, and dozens of MPs) as well as 30,000 press reports accessed at Factiva and Lexis-Nexis Academic databases over the course of two years.