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THE ROLE OF NATIONALISM IN TIIE DEMOCRATISATION PROCESS: SLOVAKIA AND SLOVENIA 1989-1998 Erika Harris Submitted in accordance with the requirements of degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds Institute for Politics and International Studies May 2000 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to work of others ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my gratitude to the numerous individuals who supported the development of this thesis and made the experience much more pleasurable than it would have been otherwise. I wish to thank in particular my supervisors, Prof. David Beetham and Dr. John Schwarzmantel for their unreserved support. This thesis would not have been possible without their encouragement, their always helpful advice and their knowledge which they so generously shared with me. I extend a note of thanks to the Economic and Social Research Council for their funding and to the Department of Politics at the University of Leeds for giving me an opportunity to teach which proved an enriching experience. My appreciation also goes to the academic and library staff at the University of Ljubljana who have helped me with my research. I wish to thank Prof. Rudi Rizman for making my research visits to Ljubljana easier and for his interest in my work and to Alenka Krasovec for showing me the beautiful countryside of Slovenia. I wish to pay a special tribute to the Institute of Philosophy at the Slovak Academy ot Science in Bratislava, for funding a part of my research visit, with the help of the British Council. I want to say thank you to its director Dr.Tibor Pichler, to Dr.Tana Sedova, Dr. Karol Kolar and ing. Egon Gal for making me feel a part of the team and helping me to understand and re-discover the country I left many years ago. My visits to Slovenia and Slovakia convinced me that there is a special place in Europe, called Central Europe. Finally, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my husband Julian for his unwavering faith in me, for putting up with my preoccupation with my thesis to the exclusion of everything else, and for reading various drafts over and over again. The process of working on this thesis produced the following publications: ‘The Slovak Question at the End of the Twentieth Century: National Identity, Political Culture and Democratisation’ in Carnijev Zbornik Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana 1998 p.p.376-394 ‘Nacionalizmus a Demokratizacny Proces' in OS November 99/11 p.p.42-47 ‘Assessing the Compatibility Between Nationalism and Democracy in Postcommunist Societies: Some Perspectives from Slovakia and Slovenia in Slovak Sociological Review?) 1:6 Fall 1999 p.p.587-602 ABSTRACT This thesis constitutes an inquiry into the relationship between nationalism and democracy in a particular setting - the postcommunist newly independent democracies. The purpose is to seek an answer to two related questions about what is the role of nationalism in the democratisation process and under which conditions is nationalism more or less compatible with democracy. Nationalism’s capacity to threaten minorities, fragment states and complicate interstate relations has been amply demonstrated and documented. This study takes a different approach to nationalism. Its starting point is the democratisation process as a factor contributing to the importance of nationalism in the political life. It revolves around a theoretical and empirical exploration of the relationship between nationalism and democracy. The empirical side is underpinned by the investigation into politics of Slovakia and Slovenia as two newly independent postcommunist states that emerged as a result of democratisation. The comparative aspect of the thesis leads to the conclusion that the role of nationalism in the democratisation process cannot be generalised and constitutes a complex process in itself, conditioned by the political context of the society undergoing the transition. The following factors are explored: the stage of national development, the conditions and circumstances surrounding the achievement of independent statehood, the previous regime and the period prior to that, the formation of transitional elites and the stage in the transition, the ethnic composition and the historically predetermined ethnic harmony within the state. This thesis presents a number of new arguments. Firstly, it proposes that nationalism in new postcommunist democracies contains civic and ethnic demands at the same time which consequently gives postcommunist nationalism a different character from classical nationalism. Secondly, the thesis seeks the correlation between the progress of the transition and nationalism in the priority given to either nation-building or state-building. Thirdly, it proposes that whilst nationalism might have a positive role at the beginning of the democratisation process, its capacity to sustain that process is limited. TABLE OF CONTENTS A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S ...............................................................................................................................i I N T R O D U C T I O N .............................................................................................................................................. 1 Research objectives...............................................................................................................................................2 Definitions.............................................................................. ................................................................................3 Research M ethodology........................................................................................................................................ 5 The Choice o f Case Studies................................................................................................................5 1. EXPLAINING NATIONALISM IN POSTCOMMUNISM ............................................11 1.1. INTR O D U C TIO N .....................................................................................................................................11 1.2. REVOLUTIONS OF 1 9 8 9 ....................................................................................................................14 1.2.1. The End o f Communism and D em ocracy......................................................................................16 1.2.2. Postcommunist Transitions and Nationalism ............................................................................... 19 1.2.3. Ethnic Politics - the Main Argument...............................................................................................22 Politicisation o f Ethnicity.................................................................................................................23 1.3..SALIENCE OF NATIONALISM IN POSTCOMMUNISM .................................................. 25 1.3.1. Historical L egacy...................................................................................................................................25 1.3.2. From ‘ancient hatred’ to Contemporary Nationalism .............................................................. 25 1.3.3. Communist Nationality Policies........................................................................................................31 1.3.4. Nationalism as a ‘Replacement’ Ideology After Com m unism ...............................................37 1.3.5. Elite Competition and the Intensification o f Ethnic Politics....................................................42 1.3.6. The N ew State, the Minority and the ‘External’ Homeland....................................................47 Minority and ‘External Homeland’ as Political Actors.............................................................50 1.4. C O N C L U SIO N ..........................................................................................................................................53 2. DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALISM: AMBIGUOUS RELATIONSHIP ....... 5 6 2.1. INTRO DUCTIO N.....................................................................................................................................56 2.2. DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALISM: THEORETICAL CONCEPTS .......................... 57 2.2.1. Democracy: Attainment and Progress............................................................................................ 58 From Rules to Substance.................................................................................................................. 58 2.2.2. Dem ocracy and National Self-determination............................................................................... 63 2.2.3. Nationalism: Defining the Nation, the State, Ethnic Group and Minority.........................65 2.2.4. Explaining the Position of the Present Thesis According to Standard Theories of N ationalism ...........................................................................................................................................................69 Civic/Ethnic Distinction................................................................................................................... 70 Modernists and Primordialists.........................................................................................................72 2.3. HOW COMPATIBLE ARE NATIONALISM AND DEMOCRACY ? ..............................74 2.3.1. ‘The people’, their Identity and their Self-determination........................................................
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