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Diversity recognition and minority representation in Central and Southeast Europe: a comparative analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

István Gergőo Székely  and
István Horváth
István Gergőo Székely*
Affiliation:
Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities, Cluj, Romania
István Horváth
Affiliation:
Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities, Cluj, Romania
*
∗Corresponding author. Email: szekely_istvan-gergo@ceu-budapest.edu
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Abstract

The need to handle ethnocultural diversity and the external pressures of Euro-Atlantic integration have led to the development of complex minority rights regimes in Central and Southeast European states. The aim of this paper is to perform a comparative analysis of the political representation dimension of these regimes, and to investigate how the regulations in this domain are related to the more general attitude of states toward diversity recognition and registration. For this purpose, we classify the states according to a series of variables concerning the manner in which ethnocultural diversity is recognized and portrayed, as well as the regulations concerning the representation of minorities, and identify patterns of their incidence. The formal-legal analysis of the constitutions, minority protection laws and of the electoral legislation of the included countries reveals a clear connection between the general attitude of the state toward diversity and the incidence of autonomies, and a less unequivocal, yet strong relationship in the case of minority representation in the national polity.

Keywords

minority rights regimesdiversity recognitionminority representationautonomy
Type
Research Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , May 2014 , pp. 426 - 448
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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Footnotes

†

An earlier draft of this paper has been presented at the 6th ECPR General Conference, 25–27 August 2011, Reykjavik, Iceland (Section 43 – Themes and Challenges to Multi-Level and Regional Politics, Panel 313 – Minority Politics within the Europe of Regions).

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