Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

community. Interestingly, ethnic parties, at least in East-CentralEurope, can be considered liberal parties. Their general program focuseson decentralization, promotion of the principle of subsidiarity, freedomof the press, freedom of association, political pluralism, human dignity,etc. These are all democratic and liberal principles, and can beconsidered as common goods for the whole population of the state.Nevertheless, these principles are favorable for the nationalization ofthe national minority. The program regarding the national minorityitself is less liberal, moreover, it is exclusivist. The democratization ofthe respective state is important in the first instance to create a favorablearea for the development of the national minority’s own system ofinstitutions.Elite theories are usually of little help in analyzing national minorityelites. The main reason for this shortcoming is that elite theories focuson the formal aspects of acquiring power, while in the case of nationalminorities the substantial aspect is more important. In my understanding,the substantial aspect is that members of national minority elites originatefrom a particular national or ethnic group and represent the goals ofa particular national minority. On this basis, one can say that the frameworkof theories of nationalism offers better results, especially in the caseof East-Central Europe, where nation-building and the politics of nationalizationare directed from above. Obviously, there are power struggleswithin the national minority elites, and the elite of the national minoritycompetes with other elites in the political sphere. However, these strugglesrarely go so far as to question the minority’s essential goals. My interpretationis that the political differences within these minority elites areabout competing projects of minority nation-building.As described above, an ethnic party is at the same time a politicalparty and a social organization that represents the goals of the nationalminority and strengthens its institutions. The political elite of the nationalminority is composed of professional politicians, representatives of the“ethno-civil” society and intellectuals. All three categories – that are notnecessarily homogeneous groups – act in the same political sphere, definethe politics of the party, and set the priorities for the society.The Hungarian Political Elite in RomaniaNationalizing Minorities and Homeland PoliticsThe Hungarian Democratic Union in Romania (HDUR), formed inDecember 1989, considers itself, and is considered by the other actors inRomanian politics, as the sole representative of Hungarians in Romania. 14As an ethnic party, it acts in the Romanian political sphere, and is organizedand functions as any other party. In the political arena, the party partici-257