Abstract
Most of the studies on “ethnic,” “ethno-political” or “minority” parties in Central Europe oscillate between two interpretations of the impact of “ethnic parties” on democratic processes. The first interpretation acknowledges the value of “ethnic parties” that guarantee the political participation of minority groups and thereby integrate them into the political system. The second interpretation adopts an opposite stance. Minority parties are perceived as weakening newborn democracies by institutionalising cultural diversity and encouraging the “ethnicization” of states. The examination of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR) proposed here aims at getting out of this dual interpretation based on a normative vision of democracy and often on a primordial representation of identity. The politicization of identity is based on changing identity configurations, and reshapes them at the same time. Besides the political entrepreneurs of minority communities are faced with a post-communist context characterised by the elasticity of the political landscape at a time when the social and territorial bases of power are being redefined. These local transformations are interacting with European as well as regional dynamics—such as the political changes taking place in the Hungarian “Kin-State”.
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Notes
- 1.
The Treaty of Trianon (4 June 1920) confirmed Hungary’s loss of two-thirds of its territory and one-third of its population, part of which was Hungarian.
- 2.
Hungary joined NATO on 12 March 1999 and the European Union on 1 May 2004. Romania became part of the Atlantic Alliance on 29 March 2004 and joined the EU on 1 January 2007.
- 3.
“Barometrul relaţiilor interetnice” [“The Barometer of Interethnic Relations”], Metro Media Transilvania, November 2001, 19.
- 4.
“A fiatalok mennének” [“The young will leave”], Szabadság, July 21, 2003. Accessed at: http://www.hhrf.org/szabadsag/3jul-21t.htm.
- 5.
The Hungarian population has declined from 10,568,000 inhabitants in 1989 to 10,197,119 in 2001.
- 6.
Romániai Magyar Szó, December 26, 1989, 1.
- 7.
“Nyilatkozat a nemzeti kérdésröl” [“Declaration on the national question”], Romániai Magyar Szó, October 27, 1992, 1.
- 8.
In 1993, 2.05% of the population declared they were not ethnically Hungarian.
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Capelle-Pogăcean, A. (2013). Minority Parties, Parties Not Unlike the Others: The Case of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR). In: Merle, JC. (eds) Spheres of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5998-5_14
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