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

Can Democracy Work in Southeastern Europe?try. Individuals of a different ethnicity, even if they reside in and are citizensof the nation-state in question, do not become part of the nationalgrouping. Civic nationalism defines nationhood in terms of citizenshipand political participation. Members of a national grouping that isdefined in civic terms share participation in a circumscribed politicalcommunity, common political values, a sense of belonging to the state inwhich they reside, and, usually, a common language. A citizen is a national,regardless of ethnicity and lineage. 6In my interpretation, civic nationalism resembles what Tamir calls “liberalnationalism,” that is, “a set of beliefs endorsing individual rights and liberties,affirming the right of individuals to equal respect and concern, andpresuming that governments should be neutral and impartial vis-à-visindividual interests, preferences and conceptions of the good.” 7 Or, simplyput, civic nationalism recognizes the right to diversity.As many scholars have argued, the breakdown of communistregimes in East-Central Europe was followed by the re-emergence of ethnicnationalism, most obviously in the former Yugoslavia and, to a muchlesser extent, in the other former communist countries. In this respect, thebloody disintegration of Yugoslavia is in sharp contrast with the “velvetdivorce” between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Nevertheless, even inthe more westernized countries of Central Europe, one still cannot speakof a widespread civic understanding of nationalism. For instance, one canrecall the wall built in 1999 by the Czechs in a neighborhood in Ústí nadLabem to separate themselves from the local Gypsy community. 8 Furthermore,one should not forget that West European states have gone througha process of nation-building that took more than two hundred years. Nevertheless,the ethno-national demands of the Basques, Corsicans, SouthTyrolean Germans, and the Irish in Northern Ireland, 9 or the currentresurgence of nationalistic and xenophobic political parties in Austria,Switzerland and Italy show that the democratic definition of the nationhas its enemies in “civilized” Europe itself.Furthermore, I would argue that ethnic nationalism did not becomea major hindrance to democratic transition in the countries of CentralEurope (i.e., Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic) not only because oftheir different communist legacies, but also because of the fragmentationof the national minorities within their boundaries and the adoption of different(ethno)national strategies by majorities, minorities and externalhomelands. Therefore, I consider that a comprehensive analysis of democratictransformation in East-Central Europe has to take into considerationthe size of the ethnic minorities within the borders of the countriesunder analysis. More importantly, one must look thoroughly to those277