Ethnic Politics After Communism

The Soviet Union encompassed dozens of nationalities and ethnicities, and in the wake of its collapse, the politics of ethnicity within its former borders and throughout Eastern Europe have undergone tremendous changes. In this book, Zoltan Barany and Robert G. Moser bring together eminent scholars whose theoretically diverse and empirically rich research examines various facets of ethnicity in postcommunist Europe and Eurasia: ethnic identity and culture, mobilization, parties and voting, conflict, and ethnic migration. The contributors consider how ethnic forces have influenced political outcomes that range from voting to violence and protest mobilization to language acquisition. Conversely, each chapter demonstrates that political behavior itself has an impact on the forms and strength of ethnic identity. Thus, ethnicity is deemed to be a contested, malleable, and constructed force rather than a static characteristic inherent in the attributes of groups and individuals with a common religion, race, or national origin.

Drawing on lessons from post-communist Europe, this book provides a summary of the practical wisdom learned in the management of ethnic conflicts from the Balkans to Chechnya. Grounded in empirical - mostly comparative - research, the essays go beyond theoretical postulates and normative ideals and acknowledge the considerable experience that exists within the post-communist world on ethnic conflict, nation and state building. What does the post-communist experience have in common with other nationalisms and nation-related conflicts, and what, if anything, is unique about it? This book, written by academics with experience as policy advisors, is strongly policy-oriented. The primordial type hypotheses of ethnic social capital and ancient hatreds are tested on the basis of public opinion surveys on nationalism and ethnic cohabitation in various countries in east-central Europe. Power-sharing arrangements in the Balkans, the small separatist Republics of the post-Soviet world as well as ethno-federalism from the former Yugoslavia to the former Soviet Empire are discussed in the respective chapters.

The post-Communist world has seen a dramatic revival of ethnicity and nationalism. The volume explores the contemporary sources, scope and intensity of nationality conflicts in the context of a disintegrating Soviet Empire. The authors address themselves to the resurgence of ethnicity and nationalism within the former Soviet imperium, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Bulgaria and China and examine the consequences of perestroika and glasnost. Central issues involve identity formation, the nature and implications of ethnic and internal conflicts and possible paths toward resolution.

Ethnic and national conflicts have been an unexpected and major source of problems in many parts of the world in recent times. Nowhere more so than in the formerly communist countries. This book provides a readable introduction to, and brief analytical coverage of, all the ethnic disputes of the 1990s. Full justice is done both to complex present-day situations and the deeper roots of ethnic conflict. This is followed by a review and evaluation of the main available explanations. The book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand why the fall of communism did not introduce an era of goodwill between the nations.

This collection systematically analyzes different models of minority politics in Eastern Europe, in an effort to understand why tensions are manageable in some contexts, uncontainable in others. There are case studies of Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, and Romania.

This book questions the prevalent assumption that ethnicity and nationalist politics had nothing to do with the Cold War and that, far from being 'frozen' until the fall of communism, they remained central to the conflict in Europe. Leading scholars bring their understanding of particular regions to bear on the wider issue of why ethnic explanations were written out of the discourse and whether this was a failure on the part of Western observers. This in turn has led to an overly simple understanding of power flowing downwards, from superpower to nation state and from state to society. Engaging with key thinkers such as Gaddis, Moynihan and Adam Roberts this collection ultimately allows such speculation to be replaced by historical research and bridges the gap between 'high politics' and ethnic concerns.

Ethnic and national conflicts have been an unexpected and major source of problems in many parts of the world in recent times. Nowhere more so than in the formerly communist countries. This book provides a readable introduction to, and brief analytical coverage of, all the ethnic disputes of the 1990s. Full justice is done both to complex present-day situations and the deeper roots of ethnic conflict. This is followed by a review and evaluation of the main available explanations. The book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand why the fall of communism did not introduce an era of goodwill between the nations.