The paper discusses the implementation of minority members' protection through political and civil rights. In the debates on minority members' rights, the issue is whether the very individual rights ...of traditional liberalism are sufficient for minority members' protection or if there is a need for group rights based on liberal principles of justice, equality and freedom. On these foundations, liberal multiculturalism considers that it is necessary to introduce group rights in order to be used by minority members, but as individual group members. Liberal multiculturalism's perception of group rights is based on liberal postulates of respect for freedom and individuals' autonomy, at the same time introducing the recognition of diversity imposed by multiculturalism in its conception of minority rights protection. The author concludes that minority rights, taking into account their internationalisation, should be regarded as a supplement to the perception of classical and contemporary liberalism, because correctly perceived individual rights conception does not neglect cultural diversities. The importance of such perception of minority protection is also visible within the framework proposed by the EU as an obligatory condition for the integration of future member states. Reprinted by permission of the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb
The results of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections highlighted the continued existence of regional diversity across Ukraine and the huge task the Ukrainian state faces in reconciling divisions ...and creating an all-encompassing modern Ukrainian identity. This article seeks to examine perceptions and understandings of identity change in Ukraine from three cities, namely Luhans'k, Kharkiv and Sumy, all adjacent to the Russian-Ukrainian state border, in an effort to deconstruct the mega-region of ‘eastern Ukraine’ and in doing so, argue for the need for further academic scrutiny of inherent nuances within ‘east’ and ‘west’ Ukraine, differences, which more large-scale quantitative research fails to uncover. Data generated from in-depth interviews in schools with school directors, history teachers and schoolchildren are analysed to demonstrate how individuals reflect on the importance of the ‘region’ in Ukraine and secondly the role of Russia in Ukraine's identity politics. The impact of these results on Ukrainian politics and society as well as our understandings of regional diversity across Ukraine is outlined in the conclusions.
As a multinational state, China's ethnic minority issue (e.g. Tibet and Xinjiang) is always a large political concern. China often treats this issue exclusively as a sovereignty matter and refutes ...outside criticism. What is the viable explanation of China's position? Is China's behavior consistent with the global norms and international law, especially the principle of national self-determination? This paper addresses these questions through an examination of China's ethnic minority issues in the context of foreign policy and international relations.
The paper analyzes citizenship formation in Bulgaria between the two world wars. The article approaches this process by studying the tension between national minority and citizenship rights in regard ...to Bulgaria's Muslim minority. In the interwar period this tension was framed by the emergent regime of minority protection following the Paris Peace Conference (1919) and the crisis of liberal democratic provisions for individual citizenship rights. I illustrate this tension by studying the conflict between Kemalists and Old Turks over leadership of the Muslim minority in Bulgaria. The conflict exposes how discourses of protection enabled a mode of national minority governance, which defined Muslims' rights in terms of reified religion and culture. This kind of definition, I argue, fostered the disempowerment of Muslims in the national public. On the other hand, the discontent with liberal democracy in interwar Bulgaria discloses the apprehension of citizenship among state authorities, Old Turks, and Kemalists as a practice of mediation; that is, acquiring the authority to mediate a particular conception of collectivity, which would be sustained by formal exercise of civil and political rights.
The aim of this study is to investigate the causes and effects of economic exclusion of historical national and ethnic minorities and to identify the policies, both at the national and supranational ...levels, that are most effective in combating this problem. The study analyzes economic participation in four regions of Europe in which historical minorities are concentrated: the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol/Bolzano (where German-speakers form a majority), Northern Ireland (where Catholics form a large majority), Estonia (where Russians and other Russian-speakers form a majority in the northeastern county of Ida-Viru) and Transylvania in Romania (where Hungarians form a majority in two counties). The main focus is on compactly settled minorities, rather than widely dispersed minorities such as Roma. The paper (Section II) shows how a variety of factors, including constitutional arrangements and other fundamental laws, policies from different fields of policy making, general economic processes, such as privatization or integration into the global marketplace, as well as the strategies adopted by the minorities themselves, affect the relative economic position of members of minorities in the four regions under analysis. This allows us to derive examples of best practice in terms of policy initiatives that can best combat the problem of economic exclusion. The paper concludes by summarizing the policies that are most effective in promoting economic inclusion in our case studies and the ways that these may be employed at a wider EU level.
This article examines the ingredients and effects of the explosive cocktail of crime, corruption, politics, and ethnic extremism. It argues that a number of contemporary conflicts seem intractable ...because in each case at least one of the parties has a vested interest in perpetuating and profiting from instability. The article suggests that attempts should be made to decouple ethnic issues from criminal ones in order to have a better chance of resolving conflict and preventing extremists from becoming spoilers. It looks at the crime–conflict relationship in conflict and post-conflict situations, particularly in Europe, and concludes by advocating a paradigm shift in order to bring new thinking and fresh policy approaches to a recurrent and persistent problem.
This article deals with religious pluralism as a factor of identity development. Multiculturalism is the key term used in describing and debating the national, cultural and religious pluralism in ...post-modern societies. The paper draws attention to the significance of the religious factor within existing multicultural contexts, as well as highlights some of the implications of religious pluralism might have for identity. The author offers to look on the new vision of identity as a potential way of its development and to analyze the changing of identity’s criteria and borders. The religious pluralism is analysed in the context of such tendencies as the multi-cultural and multi-religious communities as a result of mass migration.
This article discusses the controversy surrounding the feted twentieth-century Chinese composer and folk song collector Wang Luobin. Wang's relationship with the peoples and music of the Xinjiang ...Uyghur Autonomous Region illuminates several aspects of Han-minority relations, in particular the consumption of Otherness and the contesting of identities. The controversy also illuminates problems surrounding the transformation of traditional or folk music into a tangible commodity: problems of ownership and authenticity, in particular legal issues of copyright (who has the right to profit) and more emotive issues of moral authority (who has the right to represent). These issues have recently come to the fore in China as it undergoes its uneasy transformation into a socialist market economy, and they have special ramifications because of the state's extensive and ongoing manipulation of folk music for political ends.
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