Minority Nationalism

This article argues that the post-Dayton political organisation of Bosnia represents an exemplary illustration of the difficulties associated with the empirical application of the pluralist model of “consociational democracy”. The country’s political system has been predicated on the existence of consensus and the spirit of cooperation among the three ethnic groups without, however, offering any electoral or political incentives to their leaderships to cooperate. Also, the inclusion of several elements to the Dayton accords of a partition approach to conflict resolution has even encouraged the ethnic leaderships to maintain their nationalistic programs and their endeavours to exploit the aforementioned power-sharing arrangements. Indeed, the structural deficiencies of the Dayton agreement have permitted nationalists to continue implementing their ethnic
agendas and have accounted for the slow progress towards the implementation of the Bosnian peace process. Therefore, this article elaborates on the international policies in Bosnia, aimed at transforming the country into a viable multiethnic state, and highlights the significance of motivations for implementing the peace process.

The article shows how the main regionalist parties in Scotland and Wales— the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru—have engaged with a popu-list discourse in the wake of the Great Recession. Based on a qualitative analysis of party manifestos and party-elite interviews, the article shows that the two parties have adopted a left-wing populist discourse, based on a critique of austerity policies. In this way, albeit from distinctively regionalist perspective, they performed roles very similar to that of other contemporary left-wing populist parties, particularly in Southern Europe. The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru were able to frame their anti-austerity stances within a populist discourse because all three traditional British parties shared a preference for pro-austerity economic policies. Therefore, in Laclau's terms, the two 'Celtic' parties' attack on austerity constituted an open challenge to the hegemonic discourse of the British 'power bloc'. Analogous to the expansion of a right-wing anti-establishment protest in British politics (monopolized by the UKIP), the two parties (particularly the Scottish one) capitalized on the expansion of a left-wing populist area. This strategy has lately become less viable because Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party broke with the pro-austerity consensus among British elites.

La letteratura sull’etnicità e il nazionalismo si è prevalentemente concentrata sulla costruzione sociale dell’Io collettivo per opposizione ad uno o più Altri negativi. Attraverso l’analisi dei discorsi di tre partiti nazionalisti d’Europa occidentale dagli anni Ottanta ad oggi, questo saggio dimostra invece come l’Io collettivo possa relazionarsi anche ad (almeno) un soggetto Altro positivo, rappresentato come un’incarnazione delle proprie virtù, un modello da seguire e/o uno standard al quale equipararsi. Il saggio risponde inoltre alla necessità di fornire nuove riflessioni teoriche ed empiriche sulla relazione triangolare tra stati, nazionalismi senza Stato e integrazione Europea sottolineata da Karolewski e Suszycki (2007).

Многообразие федераций в мире диктует необходимость поиска новых подходов к их типологизации. Автор статьи исследует особый тип федеративных государств – многонациональные
федерации. К таковым, по его мнению, относятся федерации, в которых субъекты образованы в исторически сложившихся местах концентрированного проживания этнополитических общностей («внутренних наций») и выступают для них территориальной формой самоопределения. В большинстве таких государств федерализм направлен на разрешение межэтнических противоречий. В связи с этим и сама федеративная форма государственного устройства, и статус субъектов федерации, и разграничение компетенции между уровнями власти, и механизмы регионального представительства часто выступают результатом компромиссов и договоренностей между центральной властью и региональными этническими элитами.
Многонациональные федерации обладают всеми конституционно-правовыми признаками федеративных государств, однако существующие в них федеративные институты испытывают
влияние этнического фактора. На основе анализа положений конституций и других правовых актов России и зарубежных стран в рамках сравнительно-правовой методологии автор доказывает, что территориальное представительство в многонациональных федерациях тесно связано с этническим представительством, а разграничение компетенции между федеральным центром
и субъектами федерации строится с учетом этнокультурной и языковой специфики регионов.

Variety of federations in the world demands new approaches to their classifications. The author discusses a specific type of federal states called «multinational federations». This type includes federal states where sub-federal entities are established in regions historically inhabited by separate ethnic groups which have cultural and political distinctions from the rest of population of the state. Such sub-federal entities serve
as a territorial form of internal self-determination of these groups («stateless nations»). In the most of federations of this type federalism is used as an instrument for soften tensions between ethnic groups. Due
to this reason, establishing a federation and its units, as well as specifics of separation of powers between levels of governance within the state and mechanisms of sub-federal entities’ representation at the federal
level are a result of agreements and compromises between central authorities and regional ethnic elites. Multinational federations meet all constitutional-law features traditionally characterizing federal states. At the same time, federal institutions functioning within these states are influenced by an ethnic factor. Analysis of constitutions and other laws of Russia and foreign states on the base of comparative methodology allows the author concluding that territorial representation in such federations is connected with ethnic representation while allocation of powers between a federation and its entities reflects ethnic and cultural specifics of regions.

Through Nicholas Al-Jeloo's exhibition, the general Fairfield community is able to witness the immense pride of the Assyrian people and the celebration of Persistence & Existence. The Assyrians are a key community in Fairfield. This exhibition showcases how the contemporary life of the Assyrian people is deeply rooted in the past and traditions of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria.

From 1937 to 1950 the Irish government granted political asylum to a number of European minority nationalists, many of whom were wanted for crimes of collaboration with Axis forces during the Second World War. Although inspired by the Irish struggle for independence, they came discreetly and their hosts sought largely to conceal their presence. Bretons, Basques, Scots, Flemings – even a high-ranking Croat later dubbed the ‘Yugoslav Himmler’ – all found temporary or permanent refuge in Ireland.

Fugitive Ireland reveals for the first time why Dublin sheltered foreign militants who had so disastrously regarded Nazi invasion as their nationalist ‘opportunity.’ Employing unpublished sources and personal accounts, Daniel Leach explores the role of political asylum in asserting Irish sovereignty, Catholic anti-communism and revolutionary heritage, and exposes a previously hidden and controversial chapter of Irish and European history – one which, through the continued actions of post-war and even modern exiles, continues to affect Ireland’s reputation to this day.

This paper aims to analyse the contradictions of the political economy of an independent Scotland as proposed by the Scottish government. In its White Paper on independence the government declares that the people of an independent Scotland would be able to draft distinct social and economic policies based on distinct Sottish values. By referring to McCrone’s concept of the Scottish frame of reference, the paper argues that the values the programme is based on are not distinctively Scottish. Rather, Scottish identity is used to frame values that are shared all over the UK as genuinely Scottish.
The assumption is put up that the proposals of the Scottish government are, just as the supposed distinct values, not significantly different to current UK policies, but are framed as distinctively Scottish. The paper will come to conclusion that this assumption is credible. The contradictions in the programme show that the governing party fails to offer alternative policies that could alleviate the existing inequality and live up to its own expectation of creating a fairer society.