Ideas, structures, and the (un)conventional politics of minority rights in Romania and Ukraine

Abstract

This article uses a paired comparison of ethnic politics in postcommunist Romania and post-Soviet Ukraine to explore the example of language policy implementation, empirically speaking. It argues that the (variable) behaviours of linguistic minority elites—the Hungarians in Romania and the Russophones in Ukraine—are driven by elites’ ideas (or ideational elements), theoretically speaking. In Romania, a politics of interethnic compromise and the quid pro quo gained the upper hand. In Ukraine, a politics of confrontation carried the day. In these two cases, the divergence—in behavioural terms—had had far-reaching political consequences, the latter affecting the level of cooperation and the amount of trust amongst the ethnic groups. These findings enrich our understanding of the behaviour of these particular groups in politics and of the policies toward them.