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

Can Democracy Work in Southeastern Europe?authority had built a wall in front of a Roma housing estate; the wall eventuallycame down in 1999 after prolonged pressure from the Czech government,backed by the European Union, and was replaced by a “buffer zone”, with thelocal authority re-housing non-Roma families to areas where, it is said, theywill not be affected by what they saw as “the Gypsy nuisance.” For a well written,but emotional introduction to the “Gypsy question” in East-CentralEurope, see Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey(New York: Vintage Books, 1996).9Walker Connor, Ethnonationalism: The Quest for Understanding (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 35.10 Since data provided by sources from the region tend to be contradictory concerningthe ethnic structure of the countries under scrutiny, I used The WorldFactbook 2000, issued by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).The Czech Republic has a population of 10,272,179 (July 2000 estimate). Statisticaldata on Czech Republic available from http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ez.html;Internet; accessed 26 June 2001.11 The population of Slovakia is 5,407,956 (July 2000 estimate). Statistical dataon Slovakia available from http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/lo.html;Internet; accessed 26 June 2001.12 Hungary’s population is 10,138,844 (July 2000 estimate). Statistical data onHungary available from http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/hu.html; Internet; accessed 26 June 2001. Data compiled by the HungarianCentral Statistical Office’s (HCSO) available from http: //www.ksh.hu/eng/free/e7/tabla.html; Internet; accessed 26 June 2001. Unfortunately, HCSO’swebsite does not provide the most recent data regarding the ethnic structureof the population.13 The population of Poland (July 2000 estimate) is 38,646,023. Statistical data onPoland available from http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pl.html; Internet; accessed 26 June 2001.14 Romania’s population amounts to 22,411,121 (July 2000 estimate). Statisticaldata on Romania available from http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ro.html; Internet; accessed 26 June 2001. Regarding the Hungarianminority living in Romania, see also Tibor Batai, ed., Reports on the Situationof Hungarians Living Abroad: Hungarians in Romania 2000 (Budapest: GovernmentOffice for Hungarian Minorities Abroad, 2000).15 The population of Bulgaria is 7,796,694 (July 2000 estimate). Statistical dataon Bulgaria available from http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bu.html; Internet; accessed 26 June 2001.16 In this respect, Ignác Romsics has observed: “It cannot be denied that, ata time when all of Eastern Europe was in the midst of a total upheaval of thepost-World War II order, it occurred to many Hungarians that if the outcomesof the Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam Conferences could be undone, then perhapsit might be time for the Treaty of Trianon to be invalidated or at least revised.”See Ignác Romsics, Hungary in the Twentieth Century (Budapest: Corvina andOsiris, 1999), p. 461. See also White, Nationalism and Territory, p. 107.17 My analysis employs Benedict Anderson’s definition of the nation, that is, “animagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited andsovereign.” See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the293