Ethnoregionalist Parties in Central-Eastern Europe

Abstract

This panel is meant to be a first step towards a comprehensive collective study of ethnoregionalist parties in C-E Europe. In particular, we aim to investigate a) the different levels of actual freedom for the establishment of parties representing ethnoterritorial minorities and the different levels of tolerance for voicing ethnoterritorial claims; b) how ‘ethnicity’ and ‘territory’ have been ‘blended’ in different ways across cases to create and mobilize minority identities; c) how different minority parties have developed diverse ideological stances across different ideological dimensions; and d) the different levels of electoral, office and policy success across cases. At this stage, we particularly welcome paper proposals that deal with relatively less well-known case studies and that conform as much as possible to the following format: - A brief summary of the sociological-historical roots of ethnic and/or regional distinctiveness vis-à-vis the rest of the state, and the origin and nature (ethnic, regionalist, ethnoregionalist, etc.) of the party - The organizational development of the party (structure, membership, resources and links with civil society) and its electoral performances in local, regional, national and European elections - Data on party electorate (if available): % of the ethnic/territorial group supporting the party; sociological characteristics of party voters (age, gender, education, class, etc.) - Longitudinal analysis of party ideological development – salience on, position along and linkages across five dimensions of contestation (minority ethnic/majority ethnic group; region/state; public/private economy; GAL/TA; pro/against European integration) – and party strategy (multi-level coalition politics and management of trade-offs between votes, policy and office) - An exploratory analysis of policy success/failure: how historical-sociological, economic, supra-national (e.g. EU), national-institutional, and national-party politics factors interacted to determine policy success or failure.

Title	Details
Who rules when nobody dominates? Centripetal effects and ethnic engineering in divided towns in the Western Balkans	View Paper Details
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The Silesian Autonomy Movement	View Paper Details