Democratization and Minority Rights

1
Democratization and Minority Rights

• Human Rights PI4553

2
Questions

• Why are minority rights important and what part
  do they play in the larger scheme of human
  rights?
• Why does democratization encourage conflict
  between majorities and minorities?
• How and why has democratization been tied to
  minority rights in Central and Eastern Europe?

3
Democratization and Ethnicity

• Democracy in ethnically homogenous states
• Japan 1.5 minority
• UK 8.0 minority
• France 9.1 minority
• USA 30 minority

4
Democratization and Ethnicity

• Democratization in Ethnically heterogeneous
  states
• Romania 6.6 Hungarians
• Bulgaria 9.4 Turks
• Slovakia 9.7 Hungarians
• Ukraine 17.3 Russians
• Latvia 29 Russians

5
What can we say about ethnic cleansing?

• Michael Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy
• Murderous cleansing is modern and thus the dark
  side of democracy
• Link between the demos and the ethnos
• Legacies of settler colonies
• Liberalization may be violent
• Liberal democracies were built on ethnic
  cleansing
• Ethnic hostility rises when ethnicity trumps
  class as the main form of social stratification

6
What can we say about ethnic cleansing?

• Michael Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy
• Murderous cleansing is reached when
• When two ethnic groups lay claim to the same
  territory
• Both groups have considerable legitimacy and some
  possible chance of implementing control
• Murderous cleansing happens
• The less powerful side is bolstered to fight
  rather than submit by believing that aid will be
  coming from outside, or
• The stronger side believes it has such
  overwhelming military power and ideological
  legitimacy to win

7
What can we say about ethnic cleansing?

• Michael Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy
• Murderous cleansing occurs when the state is in
  control and radicalised amid an unstable
  geo-political environment
• Murderous cleansing is rarely the initial intent
  of perpetrators
• There are three main levels of perpetrator
• Radical elites running party-states
• Bands of paramilitaries
• Core constituencies providing mass though not
  majority support

8
What can we say about ethnic cleansing?

• Finally, ordinary people are brought by normal
  social structures into committing murderous
  ethnic cleansing

9
Democratization and Conflict

• Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians)
• Moldova (Russians)
• Georgia (Ossetians, Abkhazians)
• Yugoslavia (Croatia, Serbs, Bosniaks, Albanians)

10
Democratization and Conflict

• Does Democratization provide the grounds for
  conflict?
• Yes (Mansfield and Snyder 1996, 2002)
• No (Galbreath 2004)

11
Defining Democracy

• Beetham (1992) defines democracy as a mode of
  decision-making about collectively binding rules
  and policies over which the people exercise
  control. Rule by the people. Is this enough to
  define democracy? Who is the people?
• Kaldor and Vejvoda (2002) define democracy as a
  set of rules, procedures and institutions. Is
  this enough?
• Przeworski (1994) argues that democracy is
  mitigated conflict.

12
Defining Democracy

• Elected Officials The concept of democracy
  usually conjures up images of individuals at the
  ballot box voting in a fair election. Hence,
  inclusive suffrage is a must.
• Associational Autonomy A deeply entrenched civil
  society should be present in a democratic state.

13
Defining Democracy

• National Integrity One of the most difficult
  characteristics to fulfil for reformers are the
  criterion that there must be a state accepted by
  all participants as the only legitimate set of
  government institutions.
• Authoritarian elimination The elimination of all
  authoritarian blocs is a fundamental
  characteristic of democratic governance.
• Exclusive Democracy The final capstone of
  characteristics is that political actors with the
  regime should view democracy as the only possible
  political process, or the only game in town.

14
Democratization and Ethnicity

• Return to National Integrity
• State building vs nation building
• Ex. Latvia
• Tension between the demos and ethnos

15
Democratization and Minorities

• What do we mean by minority rights?
• Social Rights
• Economic Rights
• Political Rights
• Why are these important for democracy?

16
IOs and minority rights

• Why are European organizations interested in
  minority rights?
• Regional Integration
• Security
• Democracy

17
IOs and minority rights

• Which organizations are interested?
• Council of Europe
• European Union
• OSCE
• WEU
• UN
• NATO?

18
Case Study Latvia and Estonia

• Soviet legacy of nationalities policies
• Baltic Nationalism
• Baltic state-building/nation-building
• Citizenship
• Language
• Education
• European Organizations

19
Case Study Latvia and Estonia

• European Organizations
• OSCE
• Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
  Rights
• Field Missions 1992-2001
• High Commissioner on National Minorities

20
Case Study Latvia and Estonia

• European Organizations
• Council of Europe
• Framework Convention for the Protection of
  National Minorities
• Vienna Commission
• Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
  (PACE)

21
Case Study Latvia and Estonia

• European Organizations
• European Union
• Regular Reports from 1998-2004 (European
  Commission)
• European Parliament
• General Secretariat for Human Rights

22
(No Transcript)
23
A European National Minority Rights Regime?

• If an international human rights regime exists,
  how do we know?
• Interests
• Whose interests manifested where?
• Power
• Does it come down to power asymmetries?
• Knowledge
• Norm transfer as learning?

24
Conclusion

• Why are minority rights important and what part
  do they play in the larger scheme of human
  rights?
• Why does democratization encourage conflict
  between majorities and minorities?
• How and why has democratization been tied to
  minority rights in Central and Eastern Europe?