The European Dimension of the Political Representation of Minorities (original) (raw)
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The political integration of ethnic minorities is one of the most challenging tasks facing the countries of post-communist europe. The roads to their political representation in the mainstream political process are numerous and diverse. The eU accession of the Central and east european countries has expanded the scope of the political participation of minorities by adding an electoral process at the regional level: the elections for members of the european Parliament. This article presents a comparative study of the ways in which eU-level electoral processes affect the scope and quality of minority representation on the example of the participation of ethnic political parties in Bulgaria and Romania in the 2007 and 2009 electoral cycles of the european Parliament.
This article investigates the role that intra-ethnic coordination and kin-state alliances play in shaping how parties that represent national minority groups approach their participation in the European Parliament (EP). This is done through an analysis of the political behaviour-electoral strategy, party group choice and modes of interest assertion in the EP-of ethnic minority parties in five Central and East European countries. The article finds that the role of intra-ethnic coordination and kin-state alliances is limited at the level of EP elections, but significant at the level of party group choice and in the visibility of minority issues in the EP.
Ensuring representation of ethnic minorities in national level decision making is one of the important challenges that ethnically diverse societies face. A number of alternative institutional arrangements aimed at securing minority representation has been discussed 1 in the academic literature. This discussion is energized by the practical need to provide policy advice on how to craft institutions in ethnically plural states that go through the periods of democratization and/or post conflict reconciliation. While the relevance of this discussion is ensured by political developments in different parts of the world, the evidential base for judging the effectiveness of different institutional arrangements has remained somewhat limited. This is due partly to the newness of some institutional arrangements and partly to the lack of systematic inquiry into different type of consequences of choosing a specific mechanism of communal representation.
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In multiethnic states, in which numerically large national, ethnic or linguistic minorities exist with a strong distinct identity, the principle of democracy requires that these groups have representatives in parliaments. However, in many multiethnic states the national-ethnic majority makes efforts to exclude or minimize the representation of minority national-ethnic groups in legislative bodies. Serbia and Hungary are nation states with relatively high percentage of citizens belonging to national-ethnic minorities, and with developed systems of the protection of minority rights. Both states enacted electoral laws facilitating the representation of national minorities in highest elected state bodies. This article describes, critically analyzes and compares the electoral rules and their practical implementation in both states, in order to answer the question whether these rules make it efficiently possible for national minorities to acquire proper representation in parliament. In or...
The Representation of Lithuania’s National Minorities in the European Parliament: Just Poles?
Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics, 2021
There are two channels for achieving the representation of national minorities in representative bodies. One of them is the inclusion of minority representatives on mainstream party lists, while the other is their self-organization via ethnic parties. The arrangements pertinent to the organization of European Parliament elections hypothetically provide citizens with equal opportunities to be elected, regardless of their belonging to national minorities. However, some EU Member States are characterized by a relatively ethnically homogeneous population combined with a small number of allocated MEP mandates. Based on the empirical evidence from Lithuania, this article assesses the feasibility of the use of the two channels by politicians with a minority background in relation to their being elected MEPs, and shows that the latter methods represent two different types of representation according to Pitkin’s concept. The article concludes that being elected via the mainstream party lists requires a politician to have a high profile in the public life of Lithuania, whereas the success of use of the monopolized ethnic channel is contingent on the general electoral condition of the ethnic party and its capacity to sustain its constituency among the country’s national minorities. The text’s findings provide a country-specific illustration that may also be applicable in the wider context of East Central Europe in relation to studies focused on the electoral performances of ethnic parties and the inclusion of minority representatives in the activities of mainstream parties.
Treatises and Documents, Journal for Ethnic Studies, 2017
The paper explores the effects that different institutional mechanisms for legislative representation have on ethnic and social diversity in national legislatures. It uses an original data set on the Romanian parliament between 1990 and 2016 to examine representational outcomes generated by a combination of specific types of electoral mechanisms such as list proportional representation and reserved seats. The paper's findings highlight potential adverse effects that the use of communal representation mechanisms can have on the ethnic inclusiveness of main political parties. The findings also point to substantial differences in the social profile of representatives elected through different institutional channels.
Minorities in New European Democracies: A Source of Destabilization?
European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online, 2002
and Ukraine) as well as ethnically homogeneous regimes (Albania, Belarus, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia). Also excluded is the Roma minority which, for various reasons, largely remains outside of political participation
Hungarian Journal of Minority Studies, 2020
The European Parliament, due to the direct election of the MEPs, is an institution willing to represent the interests of European national minorities and regional communities , compared to other EU institutions, with the exception of the Committee of Regions. During the 2014-2019 term, various questions of national minorities were discussed in the Minority Intergroup, which is an informal but officially recognized group of MEPs, and in the Committees of the Parliament. Individual MEPs, either alone or together with other colleagues, also organized events and conferences on minority topics. Despite the EU being generally reluctant when it comes to national minorities, the plenary of the European Parliament adopted important resolutions on the matter during the term, urging the Eu-ropean Commission to create an EU legal framework for protecting national minorities. While the events, conferences and resolutions did not lead to a breakthrough, even keeping the issue on the agenda is a success, in a milieu often hostile to discuss minority problems seen as offences to national sovereignty. Altogether, important steps forward are greatly needed to secure a more just, equal and citizen-friendly Europe; this is where discussions on minority issues within the EP, for instance, could foster improvement.
Cultural Legacies and Electoral Performance of Ethnic Minority Parties in Post-Communist Europe
Although there are numerous contributions on ethnic electoral politics, relatively little research has been devoted to explain the scope of success of ethnic minority parties. This article addresses the issue within the bounds of post-communist Europe. It was found, first of all, that ethnic parties are likely to emerge only if their titular minority has a number of voters larger than what is necessary to obtain parliamentary representation. Otherwise, the most successful were the ethnic parties representing the minorities characterized by legacy of regional domination, that is, those whose members had once enjoyed a dominant position as a ruling nationality on a given territory (e.g. Hungarians in Slovakia). The second-successful were the parties representing homeland minorities, that is, those which have resided on a given area for more than two centuries, but have never been members of a ruling nation. The parties representing diaspora or immigrant minorities were the least successful. Further research could assess the importance of these factors in other regions of the world.