Between a Rock and a Hard Place – Multi-ethnic Regions on the EU's New Eastern Frontier
Between a Rock and a Hard Place – Multi-ethnic Regions on the EU's New Eastern Frontier
Author(s): Judy BattSubject(s): Political history, Government/Political systems, Social differentiation, Post-Communist Transformation, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment, Sociology of Politics, Identity of Collectives
Published by: SAGE Publications Ltd
Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe; postcommunist revolutions; national sovereignty; multi-ethnicity; European Union; EU integration;
Summary/Abstract: An oft-noted paradox of the postcommunist revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was the combination of the aspiration for "national self-determination" with the demand to "return to Europe": seeming to want to recover national sovereignty, only to relinquish it again. Freedom from Soviet domination meant the recovery of independent statehood, and states were understood as nation-states, the political expression of "the will of the people." In this sense, the aspiration to nation-statehood was fully in line with the European tradition that originated in the French Revolution, and thus represented a demand for inclusion in the mainstream of modern Europe. [...]
Journal: East European Politics and Societies
- Issue Year: 15/2001
- Issue No: 03
- Page Range: 502-527
- Page Count: 26
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF