Ray Taras

‘Islamophobia never stands still’: race, religion, and culture

Abstract Islamophobia bundles religious, ethnic and cultural prejudices together even though a narrow definition of the term flags religion as playing the central part. Calls for decoupling religion from ethnicity and culture appear justifiable: religions are increasingly disconnected from the cultures in which they have been embedded. But established political discourse infrequently makes such distinctions and may go further to racialize cultural and religious attributes of non-Europeans through essentialist framing. Islamophobia becomes a cryptic articulation of race and racism even if overtly it appears as religiously-based prejudice. Islam has been culturalized and racialized by its adherents and antagonists alike. Survey data on attitudes towards Muslims confirm such framing: the most common grounds given for experiencing discrimination was race or ethnic origin; religion and belief system were cited less often. Racialization, race and differential racism have become more endemic to Islamophobesã stigmatizing of Muslims, but to categorize Islamophobes as racists is bad politics.

Democracy in Poland

A comprehensive analysis of contemporary Polish politics, exploring the problems and achievements of this young European democracy, with its disjuncture between mass and elite political cleavages, un-institutionalized party system, and changing political arenas.. As Polish democratic politics evolves it is taking unexpected forms and producing unexpected results. Through a comprehensive analysis of politics in this young European democracy Marjorie Castle and Ray Taras explain the complexity and uncertainty of political processes and outcomes in Poland. The focus here is on contemporary politics: what the fundamental political cleavages are, whether parties adequately represent popular interests, who the political elites are and what games they play, what influence the Catholic Church still holds in an aspiring Western-style secular republic, and what policy challenges face Poland in the future. Inimitable political leaders, changing political arenas, and complex policy-making processes come to life through a fascinating narrative characterized by an insiders insight. }Ever-changing election rules, a highly fluid party system, a constitution considered illegitimate by more than one major political actor, polarized political elites, and a system of corruption that has grown up together with the young democracy itself -- these characterize contemporary Polish politics. At the same time Poland is frequently identified as the most successful example of a transition from communism to capitalism, having led this series of world-changing transitions. It has distanced itself from a turbulent history as pawn in Eastern Europes international politics to become a leading candidate for membership in the exclusive European Union club. As Polish democratic politics evolves it is taking unexpected forms and producing equally unexpected results. Through a comprehensive analysis of politics in this young European democracy, Marjorie Castle and Ray Taras explain the complexity and uncertainty of political processes and outcomes in Poland. Polandspast -- the flawed Second Republic established after World War I, as well as the imperfect independence in the Soviet shadow following World War IIs devastation -- dramatizes the unique historic opportunity it was given in 1989 to determine its own political future and perhaps eventually become a major European power. Choices made in 1989 and thereafter would not only construct a new democracy but shape and limit its possibilities. The primary focus here is on contemporary politics: what the fundamental political cleavages are, whether parties adequately represent popular interests, who the political elites are and what games they play, whatinfluence the Catholic Church still holds in an aspiring Western-style secular republic, and what policy challenges face Poland in the future. Inimitable political leaders, changing political arenas, and complexpolicy-making processes come to life through a fascinating narrative characterized by an insiders insight. }

National Identities and Ethnic Minorities in Eastern Europe

General Editors Introduction Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction Ray Taras The Psychology of Overlapping Identities: Ethnic, Citizen, Nation and Beyond P.Jonston Conover and B. E. Hicks Why do Ethnic Groups Mobilise? R. Ganguly Nationalism, Identity and the Belarusan State E.D. Jocelyn Redefining National Identity after Communism: a Preliminary Comparison of Ukraine and Poland R. Taras A New Interpretation of Ethnicity in Central and Eastern Europe M. Budyta-Budzynska Working-Class Nationalism among Polish Migrants in the Ruhr Region J. Kulczycki Poles in the Newly Independent States of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine Z. Anthony Kruszewski The Ethnic Identity of the Polish Population in Belarus: a Research Note I. Kabzinska Nationalism as an Expression of Social Conflicts in Contemporary Poland M. Kula and M. Zaremba The Russians in Moldova: Political Orientations A. Skvortsova National Development and Politics in the Finno-Ugric Republics of Russia Y.P. Shabaev and I.L. Zherebtcov Gypsy Nomads in Bulgaria - Traditions and the Contemporary Dimension V. Popov Self-government Among Bulgarian Gypsies E. Marushiakova Ethno-national Orientation among Lemkos in Poland SY. Mihalasky Index

Russia’s Security Policy under Putin. A Critical Perspective

A state’s security policy, it can be argued, is hard-edged and clear-cut. NATO troops are stationed in the Baltic states, or they are not. A missile-defence system goes operational in Romania, or i...

Transnational Xenophobia in Europe? Literary Representations of Contemporary Fears

Does an enlarged Europe harbor an enlarged fear of foreigners? Has EU expansion produced a bizarre, unintentional convergence in the xenophobic attitudes of eastern and western Europeans? What is the texture of this xenophobia in the different parts of Europe? This article is divided into three parts. First, it summarizes the contemporary European debate on fear of foreigners, antipathy towards immigrants, and the effort to enforce boundaries of national belonging. Second, it provides empirical evidence about national phobias using Germany and Poland as examples. Finally, it assays literary representations of European fears construed by select contemporary playwrights and novelists. The article proposes that the drama of European xenophobia is most effectively captured in the works of European writers, not in the discourse of EU leaders or social scientists.

Leaderships and Executives

The executive branch of government in Eastern Europe has undergone profound transformation since the fall of Communist regimes in 1989. Changes have affected the process of choosing political executives, or leaders, but they have also included the distribution of power that is vested in the executive branch. Of particular importance in designing the ‘architecture’ of power has been the manner of controlling the actions of leaders and, connected to this, the relationship between executive and legislative branches of government. For as Robert C. Tucker, a long-time analyst of Soviet politics, has hypothesised, ‘we can see the possibility of an authoritarian personality serving as leader in the regime of a constitutional democracy, and, conversely, of a democratic personality serving as the leader in an authoritarian system of rule’ (Tucker, 1981, p. 68). It is ‘the institutionalized difference between democratic and authoritarian forms of government’ which revolves around (i) the possibility or prohibition of active public participation in leadership choice, and (ii) control of or submission to executive prerogatives, that marks the boundary between democratic and undemocratic leadership.

Putin’s Sochi hubris: righting the ship of sport, wronging the ship of state?

Abstract This article contributes to the literature on crisis management by focusing on sport mega-events as a factor which may distract a leader from responding effectively to the outbreak of an international crisis. The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi were unusual because of the outbreak of a major foreign policy crisis in a neighbouring country and the urgent need of the rulers of authoritarian Russia to address it: the simmering Euromaidan protests in Kyiv which came to a head as the Games were ending. Using time-series analysis, this article outlines the balance the Russian President Vladimir Putin struck between athletics and politics and suggests that he set aside insufficient time to the Euromaidan crisis. While many factors shaped developments in Kyiv which resulted in the overthrow of a pro-Russian government and its replacement by a Western-oriented one, Putin’s hubris, producing a distracted leader consumed with athletes and athletic competition played a major role.

Constructing Grievance: Ethnic Nationalism in Russia's Republics

tell us much about the actual logic of interaction between given actors without considering the actual interaction and resulting practices. Concerning the nature of wider international society, there are limits to fostering post-sovereign institutions in a largely sovereign world. Russia’s insistence on its sovereignty can also be explained by the challenge the EU poses to it. It is interesting to read the author’s conclusion about the limits of post-sovereignty in a mostly Westphalian world and the role of world-views in hindering the institutionalisation process of EU–Russia relations, since it has major implications for the relationship. Arguing that worldviews are slow to change and in the past two decades of institutional cooperation hardly any improvement has been seen, Haukkala seems to imply that the actors are necessarily pathdependent and deterministic, undermining EU–Russia relations for the foreseeable future. This train of thought is enforced by the empirical finding of the lack of double-loop learning that could potentially influence world-views. World-views are indeed hard to change, but the example of the EU shows that with the necessary political will and clear goals in mind it is possible for states to delegate part of their sovereign qualities to the level of integration. According to the results of the book, in treating Russia with the same political conditionality as prospective member states the EU assumes a certain degree of commonality that is clearly not there and the limitations of this path should also be clear to the EU at this point. Haukkala’s book is highly recommended to experts on EU–Russia relations and those interested in its theoretical background. The implications of this volume might suggest that if the EU does not want to be marginalised and alienate Russia, the way forward should perhaps be a more traditional institutional relationship built on interest-based bargaining that could eventually lead to a higher degree of commonality with which Russia would not feel its sovereignty challenged at every turn of the road.

Cultural Transformations after Communism: Central and Eastern Europe in Focus

FEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS BEGIN WITH THE BANG THAT THIS edited volume does. Slovene academic Mitja Velikonja sets the tone for this Eurosceptic collection of essays by remarking, ‘never during the one-party era of ‘‘Yugoslav totalitarianism’’ did I see as many red Communist stars as I saw yellow, European stars in the spring of 2004; that is to say, under ‘‘democracy’’’ (p. 17). It is a tribute to the two Scandinavian-based editors (at Lund and Copenhagen Universities), whose presence is otherwise barely discernible, that the contrarian motif—Eastern enlargement states’ puzzlement at what they got into by joining the European Union—cuts across country studies included in the book. Velikonja’s invention of ironic concepts such as Eurokitsch, EUdorado, EUgoism and Eurosis (this last the chapter title) may be both humorous and tedious, but with them he raises important questions about the tendentiousness of EU discourse. Put metaphorically, ‘which are those ‘‘dead stars’’, ‘‘non-illuminated planets’’ and ‘‘black holes’’ in this new European constellation?’ (p. 51). Who is excluded from the club and what has become Europe’s new ‘Other’? Or, as the author asks, ‘who will be members of ‘‘Not-Yet-Europe’’, ‘‘Not-Europe’’, ‘‘Sub-Europe’’ or ‘‘Never-Europe’’ groups?’ (p. 51). The double-edged character of Europeanness is signalled in other issues raised by Velikonja. Is orientalism a necessary condition of European identity? Is a peripheral country’s contact with Europe the prerequisite for modernity—a colonial Eurocentric perspective not much different from one that emerged 150 years ago? Is Homi Bhabha’s notion of colonial mimicry discourse essential to the EU’s further consolidation and enlargement? Other contributors to this book (which grew out of a conference entitled ‘A Europe without Adjectives?’) draw less striking but equally critical observations about post-communist Europeanisation processes in the region. Two chapters on the largest of the 2004 accession states, Poland, provide a double-barrelled critique of Westernisation. Tomasz Zarycki contrasts the Easternness associated with Poland’s communist-era identity with the Europeanness that post-1989 elites have highlighted. To be sure, Poland’s conservative groups have made known their reservations about a secular Brussels-dominated Europe, and Mattias Nowak offers a theoretically insightful, persuasive analysis of the Christian Right’s wariness about Europeanness. He cites Polish writer Henryk Rzewuski’s question from 1851: ‘Is a compromise between Christianity and contemporary civilization possible?’ (p. 115). A typology of Czech and Slovak historical narratives that emerged in the 1990s is creatively parsed by Tomas Sniegon. His conclusion is that the Czechoslovak communist account shares an illiberal bent with the Slovak national–Catholic one anchored in the wartime Tiso experience. By contrast, the Czech national-liberal narratives (Masaryk-oriented) and Slovak nationalEuropean narratives (centred on the ‘Europeanness’ of the 1944 Slovak national uprising—the subject of a separate chapter by Barbara Lášticová and Andrej Findor) explain the recent Czech and Slovak preference for EU integration. Such instrumental approaches to history, Sniegon implies, can legitimise ideological volte-face. EUROPE-ASIA STUDIES Vol. 64, No. 4, June 2012, 789–805

Home Writ Large: Nationalism and the Maintenance of Empire

What happens when homeland has been a large empire and must be reconfigured into a ‘mere’ multinational state or smaller imperium? How are identities reconstructed to reflect empires diminished in size? What part does nationalism play in providing meaningful new identities?