Democracy, Ethnic Diversity, and Security in Post-Communist Europe

Anita I. Singh

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN: 9780275972585
• eBook ISBN: 9780313074639
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Política comparada

Inder Singh examines why international organizations including the UN, OSCE, and Council of Europe advocated democratic governance, based on the rule of law and respect for human and minority rights, as the method by which states should try to accommodate their ethnically mixed populations. She discusses how realistic this advice has been, given the tension between the principle of the sovereignty of states and their international obligations, and the extent to which democratization had made for ethnic and political stability in post-communist Europe. Inder Singh demonstrates that this advocacy of democracy to handle ethnic diversity questions the perception of nationalism as a cause of war and disorder. This pathbreaking study will be of appeal to academics and policy makers interested in how the management of ethnic diversity through democracy can enhance domestic and international security.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Democracy, Ethnic Diversity and Post–Cold War Security: The Practical and Conceptual Dilemmas
• 2 Managing Ethnic Diversity Through Political Structures and Ideologies: The Experiences of the Soviet Union, India, Spain and Sri Lanka
• 3 Self-Determination, Democracy, Minorities and Sovereignty: The Issues Raised by the Collapse of Yugoslavia and the USSR
• 4 Reconciling the International and Domestic Dimensions of Democracy
• 5 On the Absence of War in the Former Communist Bloc: Magyar and Russian Minorities in Countries Neighboring Hungary and Russia
• Conclusions
• Selected Bibliography
• Index