Suchergebnisse

Regional politics play a decisive role in national politics when region poses ethnic groups in competing manner. Sri Lanka's Eastern province has been a contested region in terms of ethnic and territorial integration as well as the integration of majority and minorities from the independence of the country, during civil war, and in the post-civil war era. This study explores the ethnic groups' competition for political control and autonomy, as well as its impact in Eastern Sri Lanka. This study has employed both qualitative and quantitative data, collected mainly through secondary sources such as literary books, book chapters, journal articles, newspaper cuttings, and government documents, which are analyzed and presented through interpretive and descriptive manners. The study has found that the Eastern province has been a contested choice for the ethnic majority to extend their ethnic domination, and to implement ethno-centric development-cum settlement policies and programs, all of which are ultimately induced to change the ethnic composition of the region and pushed ethnic minorities to mobilize and demand for more decentralized power and autonomy in the region. The thirty-year prolonged civil war made the region not only a war-torn, but also let to undermining regional democratic principles, including minorities' rights for autonomy. The study also reveals that the new emerging post-war political context at the provincial and national levels continues to undermine the minorities' hopes for autonomy in the region. Nevertheless, the region has emerged as 'role-model' for ethnic cohesive politics.

Situated at the interface of policy and political processes, this study explores the dynamics and strategies of the state with regard to Muslims and lower castes. It examines the underlying issues that influence state policy towards disadvantaged groups.

We analyze the process of democratization in a polity with groups that are divided along ethnic as well as economic lines. We show that: (i) the presence of ethnic minorities, in general, makes peaceful democratic transitions less likely; (ii) minorities suffer from discriminatory policies less in democracies with intermediate levels of income inequality; and (iii) in new democracies with low levels of income inequality, politics is divided along ethnic lines, and at greater levels of inequality economic cleavages predominate.

Using a state-level panel data set on the incidence of hate crimes in India, this paper implements difference in difference (DID) and triple difference in difference (DDD) research designs to estimate the causal impact of the right-wing BJP's win in the 2014 parliamentary elections on hate crimes against religious minorities (Muslims, Christians and Sikhs). Comparing the periods 2009-13 (pre-election) and 2014-18 (post-election), I find that BJP's electoral victory caused an increase in the incidence of hate crimes against religious minorities in India.

This study is devoted to politics of nationalism under Bulgarian communism (1944-89). The research aims to analyse the actual content of the Bulgarian communist policies on three main national questions and the ideas behind them. How did Bulgarian communism understand nation and nationalism? How did the Bulgarian Communist Party policy on issues of nationalism change over time? What was the legacy of communist politics of nationalism after the fall of the regime in 1989? This thesis focuses on three national questions in Bulgaria: `the Macedonian Question', the position of the ethnic Turkish minority, and the politics of Jewish identity. It argues that revealing the ideas behind the communist policies in relation to these questions explains how communism understood national identity in Bulgaria. Chapter 1 provides an overview of theories of nationalism and communism in relation to Bulgarian communism. Chapter 2 analyses the understanding of communist internationalism and nationalism of the founders of Bulgarian communism and their followers in the contest of Marxism, Marxism-Leninism and Stalinism. Chapter 3 discusses Bulgarian communist mythology and argues that under communism Bulgarian national mythology was at the basis of promoting cultural nationalism which in its own turn was used for political mobilisation against ethnic diversity. Chapters 4,5 and 6 are dedicated to the three national questions mentioned above and their development under communism. Chapter 7 examines politics of nationalism after the fall of the communist regime in Bulgaria in 1989 and argues that by promoting cultural nationalism based on ethnic homogeneity the policies of the BCP in relation to ethnic minorities determined the politics of nationalism during post-communism in Bulgaria. The chapters are linked by the argument that Bulgarian communism changed its original idea of building a communist ration-State as a political community with class identity at its core to building an ethnically homogenous nation-state with ethnic Bulgarian identity as its organising principle.

As recently as November 1988, the then Minister for Justice, Gerry Collins, speaking in Seanad Éireann during the Second Stage of the Prohibition of Incitement to Racial, Religious or National Hatred Bill, remarked that Ireland was "essentially a homogeneous society" and "despite our membership of the European Community and, therefore, our close relationship with a number of societies which are becoming increasingly multiracial, the racial structure of this country is unlikely to change significantly for some time to come." Whereas Collins viewed Ireland as a homogenous society in the late 1980s, this is certainly not the case today. A look at the 2011 census reveals that 544,357 non-Irish nationals were living in the Republic of Ireland, an increase of 143% since 2002, representing 199 different nations. The change in Ireland's demographics has coincided with a transformation in Ireland's reputation as one of being a socially conservative society dominated by the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, to one of Ireland being a leading exemplar for human rights and tolerance throughout the world. This was most epitomised by the 2018 repeal of the eighth amendment of Bunreacht na hÉireann, which had placed a constitutional ban on abortion since the divisive referendum of 1983, and the 2015 marriage equality referendum. It is within this context that the tenth issue of Studi irlandesi. A Journal of Irish Studies focuses on "Minorities in/and Ireland" as a means of contextualising the important role minorities have played in Irish society. "Minorities in/and Ireland" comprises ten essays divided up into four sections: "Queer Representations in Literature"; "Home and Away: Notions of Irishness"; "Theatre and Minorities' (In)Visibility"; "Resilience: Travellers and Magdalene Survivors", which broadly address issues such as: the representation of LGBT individuals, exiles, migrants, and refugees in Irish literature; LGBT migrants and political activism; the role of theatre as a medium of giving voice to minorities like Ireland's Jewish community and those with disabilities; and the resilience of Ireland's Traveller community and survivors of Magdalene Laundries. The essays are not confined to one period, instead, they span from the late 1800s to the present day, covering both the North and South of Ireland as well as regions outside Ireland. Combined, these essays provide an insight into a changing Ireland. ; -- 1. Queer Representations in Literature -- 2. Home and Away: Notions of Irishness -- 3. Theatre and Minorities' (In)Visibility -- 4. Resilience: Travellers and Magdalene Survivors

Examines the role of language in disputes over minority rights; eg, in Sri Lanka, adoption of the Official Language Act (1956) has proven a major milestone on the long path to civil war; in Turkey, governmental unwillingness to acknowledge ethnic differences in the population has resulted in widespread linguistic discrimination against the Kurdish minority; & in the US, English-only proponents have promoted a common language in a manner that asserts ethnic dominance. How to protect the rights of linguistic minorities is discussed, & whether the state should provide bilingual education to children who begin their schooling knowing only a minority language is also considered. M. Maguire

The article examines contemporary memory politics in Belarus as exhibited by new monuments to Holocaust victims, the genocide of the Roma people, and the mass killings of representatives of the Polish minority during World War II. It analyses various instances of the exploitation of the mythology of World War II for daily political purposes. Dr Kotljarchuk draws parallels with memory politics in Ukraine, and its conciliation with Poland and Russia with which Belarus shares similar problems, namely the very limited commemoration of the genocide of the Roma and the swift rate of memorialisation of the Holocaust.

Scholars of foreign policy-making have concentrated on how the most powerful domestic actors influence foreign policy and have largely ignored the influence of less powerful, minority actors. This article argues that bureaucratic minorities — subordinates and less powerful departments — can and do influence foreign policy. Despite the extensive scholarship on bureaucratic politics and the central importance of `power' in the theory, we know little about the nature and effects of asymmetrical power relations. Drawing from various research, this article proposes that bureaucratic minorities can adopt strategies based on rewards and costs, manipulation of decision procedures, and information to bypass or exploit their status to influence policy. The choice and effectiveness of these strategies may depend on whether or not the actor is a vertical minority (a subordinate influencing a superior) or a horizontal minority (a representative from a less powerful department influencing other departments). Further investigations of the conditions under which minority players have influence can be part of a much needed revival of the bureaucratic politics perspective on foreign policy-making.