S Stroschein

Ethnic struggle, coexistence, and democratization in Eastern Europe

1. Ethnic protest, moderation, and democratization 2. Time, process, and events in democratization 3. Ethnic contention in context 4. Local violence and uncertainty in Targu Mures, 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.

Measuring Ethnic Party Success in Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine

Ethnic conflict need not mean war; it can take place peacefully in the political arena.

Making or Breaking Kosovo: Applications of Dispersed State Control

In this article, I make a case for a dispersed state control model as an alternative to the territorial and hierarchical principles of the Weberian state. Rather than allocating governance powers in terms of territory, dispersed state controls are based on a functional principle, in which governance is allocated to various subunits by issue area or function. This examination is informed by recent debates in international relations theory on contractual and imperial network models of control, as well as work on non-territorial autonomy in the fields of nationalism and ethnic conflict. I examine the practical application of a dispersed control model in the context of the governance structure proposed for Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in February 2008. I conclude with an overview of the advantages of creative designs for states that move beyond territory and hierarchy, to deal with complex demographic and governing realities in regions such as the Balkans.

Demography in ethnic party fragmentation: Hungarian local voting in Romania

When and where might ethnic party outbidding occur? This article examines potential outbidding dynamics via a study of local elections in Romania, where the dominant Hungarian UDMR/RMDSz (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) was recently challenged by a rival party, the MPP (Hungarian Citizens’ Party). A comparison of election results is made across cities and counties that differ according to demographic characteristics. Two primary findings emerge. First, Hungarian unity in the form of the RMDSz remained strong except under enclave conditions — where the ethnic minority is the local majority. Outbidding is more likely to be a luxury of enclave regions, where fragmentation will not involve a loss of power to another ethnic group, as could happen to a local minority or with ‘split’ demographics. Second, when majority-minority demographics are clear, cross-ethnic formal or informal coalitions are more likely to emerge. Cross-ethnic coalitions are rare under conditions of ‘split’ demographics, which exhibit a logic of ethnic polarization.

NGO Strategies for Hungarian and Roma Minorities in Central Europe

NGOs sponsor a variety of innovative projects relating to the Hungarian and Roma minorities in Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine, as well as for the Roma in Hungary. However, a study of 33 NGOs in this region reveals that the strategies behind these projects tend to vary according to the particular group being addressed. NGO projects emphasizing Hungarian minorities tend to utilize network strategies to increase contact between Hungarians and titulars (Romanians, Slovaks, and Ukrainians), while projects for Roma tend to avoid network strategies, focusing exclusively on status-raising strategies. This paper presents the promises and shortcomings of both approaches, and concludes with an analysis addressing why NGOs should be less hesitant to apply network strategies to Roma projects as well as to Hungarian projects.

Microdynamics of Bilateral Ethnic Mobilization

Instrumentalist arguments prioritize the actions of elites in ethnic mobilization, whereas social structure accounts examine why elite appeals might succeed. Each remains incomplete. In this paper, an account is presented of the interactions between elites and masses that drive bilateral ethnic mobilization processes. Event analysis and scaling are used to examine tense instances of Hungarian and Romanian ethnic mobilization in Romania in 1990 and 1992, one of which turned violent. Two forms of comparison are made possible: a comparison of action trajectories by intensity over time, and a comparison of transactions between actors at different points in time. These transaction patterns serve as the building blocks of contentious processes. The patterns identified here are mass-first mobilization, mass–elite tandem for minorities, and cross-group emulation in mobilization and demobilization.

Politics is Local: Ethnoreligious Dynamics under the Microscope

All of the pieces in this volume are strong examples of detailed, local research at the micro-level into city politics. They thus provide a number of insights into the dynamics of ethnic politics that tend to be missed by studies that focus on macro-level entities such as states and nations. First, these pieces demonstrate the strong influence of informal institutions in local settings. Second, strong variations in ethnic dynamics between cities with similar structural conditions illustrate the path-dependent nature of politics in local settings. These particularities emerge from informal institutions such as local network configurations and norms, local discourses, and the influence of past local events. Third, structural factors such as demographics, formal local governance institutions, and institutional relations between a mixed city and the central government provide background conditions to these influences that will enable or constrain the actions of groups. Finally, groups compete at the local level not simply for material resources such as land and housing, but also over linguistic, cultural, and symbolic resources. Each of these areas provides a promising avenue for future research.

Consociational Settlements and Reconstruction: Bosnia in Comparative Perspective (1995–Present)

Both Bosnia in 1995 and Northern Ireland in 1998 were extremely fragile in the immediate aftermath of brokered peace negotiations. Each instituted a form of consociationalism—a government that institutionalizes a voice for each ethnic group—as an element of brokered peace. In this article, I examine Bosnian postwar governance with comparative insights from Northern Ireland. Bosnia was the recipient of a large amount of international aid. While this aid was crucial to the initial state-building effort, the problems Bosnia now faces are due to its consociational governance structure. Some of the group-based aspects of consociationalism are in tension with individual rights, a problem that cannot be addressed by aid alone.

Examining ethnic violence and partition in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Abstract A number of scholars have argued that the separation of ethnic groups is the best way to resolve ‘ethnic wars’, or wars in which the primary cleavage is coded as ethnic. This partitionist view identifies ethnic mixing as the root of conflict, and partitionists thus prescribe policies that will ‘unmix’ ethnic groups—the drawing of new borders and potential population transfers. This paper argues that the partitionist position misidentifies ethnicity and demographics as the cause of conflicts. Using examples from the war in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995, I demonstrate how a more dynamic approach to examining conflict can better illustrate the complex and contingent emergence of the boundary activation mechanism that produces violence. I conclude with an argument that policy prescriptions should incorporate dynamism into their structures. The Dayton Agreements durability nearly 10 years after the wars end demonstrates the merits of flexible policies, as opposed to the draconian measures prescribed by the partitionists.

Discourse in Bosnia and Macedonia on the Independence of Kosovo: When and What is a Precedent?

Bosnia and Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and 1992, and subsequent referenda legitimised these declarations, but unitary state actors did not emerge. Rather, Bosnia and Macedonia each contain groups with divisive views regarding the nature of the state in which they live. Kosovo is regularly invoked as an example in their contentious discussions. In this essay, I present a framework for understanding this discursive contention in which Kosovo provides the focus for disputes between extremists and moderates of different groups. Within the two states, groups differ over the recognition of Kosovos declaration of independence and the question of whether this might constitute a precedent. A political, rather than simply a legal, view on these discussions helps us to better understand not only these dynamics, but similar contestations unfolding elsewhere.