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Revisiting Affirmative Action, globally
In our Introduction to this Special Issue of Cultural Dynamics focusing on affirmative action, we wish to give a very brief global overview to the policies and practices of affirmative action in order to situate our prefatory remarks about the articles contained here. Obviously, it would be impossible to address all global policies in one volume adequately, much less the varied opinions and analyses held about their implementation. This selection of articles represents proceeds from a conference on Global Affirmative Action in a Neoliberal Age, held at Duke University in November of 2012.
THE PHENOMENON OF TRANSNISTRIA AS A MODEL OF POST-SOVIET DIVERSITY POLICY
This text discusses the structure and content of diversity policy in the so -called Transnistrian Moldovan Republic (TMR), an unrecognized state that broke away from Moldova during the collapse of the Soviet Union. The case of Transnistria is particularly useful as an example for analyzing the origins, structure, contents and effects of the post-Soviet ethno-cultural policy in a comparative perspective. Moreover, the model of Transnistrian state-and nation-building, since it is not explicitly based on privileging a core ethnicity, differs from nearly all countries and de facto states of the postcommunist space. The working paper describes the TMR normative framework pertinent to the management of ethnic and linguistic diversity and analyzes the patterns of its implementation. The authors analyze the reasons why ethnic diversity has never been a challenge to the Transnistrian statehood and its stability while different ethnicities and languages are treated differently. The Transnistrian phenomenon is also considered from the perspective of the effectiveness and efficiency of post -Soviet diversity policies.
Minorities in the post-Soviet space thirty years after the dissolution of the USSR
2021
An international conference devoted to investigating questions relating to minority communities in the countries that emerged from the former Soviet Union. Through the interventions of linguists, jurists, historians and political scientists, the event aims to analyze the impact and consequences that the dissolution of the USSR and the end of the Warsaw Pact had on the identity, rights and protection of ethnic minorities within the nation states resulting from the disintegration of the Soviet bloc. Central to the Conference are its emphasis on presenting the commitment of minority communities to promote and maintain their languages and cultures in the post-Soviet geopolitical region, and the simultaneous, comparative and interdisciplinary approach to minorities. The conference will take place live (in the Como branch of the University of Insubria) and online on December 1-3, 2021 and will see the participation of scholars affiliated to the University of Insubria and other Italian and foreign universities (Russian Academy of Sciences, Czech Academy of Sciences, Belorusian State University, Akaki Tsereteli State University, Sapienza Università di Roma, Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale, Università di Cagliari, Università di Udine, Università Ca' Grande di Venezia, Università di Palermo, Università di Verona, Università di Milano).
Minorities protection in Russia: is there a ‘communist legacy’?
Institutional Legacies of Communism: Change and Continuities in Minority Protection: Karl Cordell, Timofey Agarin, and Alexander Osipov (eds) Routledge 2013 ISBN 978-0-415-63873-9, 2013
Russia may be the exception that proves the rule – if there is a rule with respect to “legacies”. Russia has since 1996 adopted, as the centrepiece of its minorities policy, a model of non-territorial autonomy, National Cultural Autonomy (NCA), which was anathema to Lenin as well as to Stalin and Trotsky – one of the few points on which they were all agreed. This model was elaborated in the late 19th century by the Austro-Marxists, Otto Bauer and Karl Renner. Yet the Russian Federation now presents NCA as its most important policy for the protection of minorities, and the Federation itself is an asymmetric patchwork of administrative oblasts ethnic republic, and other territorial autonomies. I start this chapter by problematising the use of the word ‘communism’. Next. I subject the word “legacy” to critical scrutiny, with the aid of some recent analyses. Third, I consider whether there is a “Leninist legacy”. I show how Lenin’s vigorous promotion of the ‘right of nations to self-determination’, which he inherited from Marx and Engels, and which during his lifetime he put into practice, at the last coming into conflict with Stalin, gave the USSR and the RSFSR a unique structure with a right, on paper, to secession. Lenin also promoted territorial autonomy. In effect, he radicalised Tsarist minorities policies. Fourth, I show that Lenin’s contributions to debates on self-determination and autonomy should be considered in the context of lively debates in scholarly circles of all shades of political opinion in the late 19th century, as to the future shape of a post-Imperial Russia. Thus, rather than a ‘communist’ or ‘Leninist’ institutional legacy, it might be better since the collapse of the USSR in 1991 to speak of a ‘Tsarist’ or even ‘imperialist’ institutional legacy. Fifth, I turn to Russian policy after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. One could perhaps say that if there was an institutional legacy of ‘Leninism’, then it was the ‘parade of sovereignties’ throughout Russia of 1990-1991, and the dissolution of the USSR itself in late 1991. Fifteen new states came into existence. Sixth, I explain the unexpected Russian experiment in non-territorial cultural autonomy. Finally I consider the impact on minority protection in Russia of membership of the Council of Europe.
Minority Inclusion in Central and Eastern Europe
Intersections, 2018
The question of how governments deal with ethnic diversity is fundamental to the future of peace and democracy in Europe. The way this question is articulated and addressed has changed significantly, as European governments and social actors respond to problems of regional security, domestic political contestation, and economic well-being. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the collaborative efforts of European organizations – primarily the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the European Union (EU) – provided a historic opportunity for the development of common European standards about minority inclusion across the whole spectrum of political and economic rights and opportunities available to state majorities. Europeanization – which involved the deepening of transnational institutional structures in member states, the enlargement of the EU to include an increasing number of countries from the former Soviet bl...
Institutional Legacies of Communism : Change and Continuities in Minority Protection
2018
In our book review, we present two books that deal internationally with a topic that is examined by literature regarding national minorities. Let's see the authors of the gapfilling work first. Timofey Agarin and Karl Cordell, researchers of the nationalities of post-communist states, have presented several publications. Agarin is an instructor at Queen's University in Belfast. His field of research is the social and institutional change in post-communist countries, with particular regard to the aspects of minority protection, migration and NGOs. His investigations primarily seek to demonstrate the impact of national identity, power relations and ethnic conflicts on the nation-state institutional system of the post-communist region. Cordell is a professor of political science at the University of Plymouth, an editor of the prestigious Ethnopolitics journal, published by the Association for the Study of Nationalities. In his research, he focuses on minority politics in Centra...
Integrating Differences: Human Rights, Social Inclusion and Social Cohesion in the Balkans on its Road to the EU. Ed. by Jana Lozanoska and Slavco Dimitrov. Skopje: Euro-Balkan Institute, 2009. (181-199)
In this paper I present the Serbian experience in the implementation of affirmative action in public education for Roma people. Despite the fact that affirmative action is embedded in the constitution, these concrete measures are still not translated into long term official policies aimedat a comprehensive integration of Roma people. Therefore, the implementation of affirmative action in the country is being kept “low profile”, which has a serious impact on the thus far achievements in the outreach of the policy. Having analyzed the current state of affairs in the implementation of affirmative action, I also discuss possible alternatives to the current solution regarding the advancement in institutional preferential treatment of Roma children in public education as part of the comprehensive Roma social integration policies process Serbia is going through at the moment. Key words: Roma education, inclusion, affirmative action, equality, social equity
Agendas of Non-discrimination on Ethnic Grounds in the Post-Soviet Space
Intersections
The article analyses discursive and practical activities by governmental and non-governmental actors in Russia and Ukraine aimed at the conceptualization and promotion of human equality on ethnic grounds as non-discrimination. The author aims at analyzing the reasons why anti-discrimination instruments are in low demand vis-à-vis concerns about ethnic xenophobia and conflicts. The author argues that the given societies have limited incentives and institutional capabilities for the creation and effective application of anti-discrimination mechanisms. The ruling elites have no reason to regard ethnic inequalities as a challenge; civil society activists and ordinary claimants might not treat non-discrimination as an efficient remedy; and there is no commonly accepted image of injustice in inter-group relations. Moreover, the marginality of anti-discrimination agenda in the post-Soviet space begs questions about the said mechanisms’ universal applicability, since the latter require pre-...