István Szilágyi
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HAO, Núm. 34 (Primavera, 2014), 89-103 ISSN 1696-2060 NATIONAL MINORITIES AND THE QUESTION OF THE AUTONOMY IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN* István Szilágyi University of Pécs, Hungary. E-mail: [email protected] Recibido: 3 Abril 2013 / Revisado: 15 Octubre 2013 / Aceptado: 22 Enero 2014 /Publicación Online: 15 Junio 2014 Resumen: The 21st century is the age of globa- The Westfalian international system based on lisation. It is also the time of minorities, the principle of the exclusivity and omnipotence identities moving back towards nationality- of state entities has been transformed and has consciousness, minority rights and autonomies. largely disappeared. The notion of the Nation These factors have a significant influence on the State, which dates back to the 18th and 19th multinational state structures in both the centuries and conveys the concept of homo- developed and semi-peripheral areas of the geneity, has lost its validity, as well. world. The transformation of the unitarian centralised states and territorial systems carried Our century is also the time of minorities, the out by devolutional, decentralised and region- time of identities moving back towards na- regulatory processes as well as the development tionality-consciousness and the time of inte- of the local councils and self-governing systems grational, disintegrational, territorisational, de- representing territorial autonomies of different territorisational and reterritorisational ten- levels indicate general tendencies. In the life of dencies in addition to the implementation of the national minorities living in the territories of principle of subsidiarity. multinational states the mother tongue is the primary representative of national identity and All these factors have a significant influence on serves as an increasingly powerful factor in the the multinational state structures in both the lives of national mi-norities. On the basis of the developed and semi-peripheral areas of the National Censuses in 2011, the study analyses world. The breakup of the Soviet Union, the possible frame-work, circumstances and the Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, the federal and demographic factors in the Carpathian Basin. structural transformations in Great Britain, Spain and Italy and the state failures in the Third Palabras clave: National minorities, National World are manifestations of the same phe- identities, self-government, Autonomy models, nomenon. Spain, Federalism, Catalonian experiences, Carpathian Basin, Seklerland, Hungarian The transformation of the unitarian centralised minorities, Rumania. states and territorial systems carried out by devolutional, decentralised and region-regu- ______________________ latory processes as well as the development of the local councils and self-governing systems 1. GLOBALISATION, THE RISE OF representing territorial, personal and national IDENTITIES AND THE TRANSFORMA- autonomies of different levels indicate general TION OF THE STATE STRUCTURE tendencies. In the life of national minorities living in the territories of multinational states the he 21st century is the age of mother tongue is the primary representative of globalisation, the era of connections national identity: it expresses a strong sense of T between cultures and civilisations belonging to the given national community. representing different values and value systems. Along with the legal framework that serves to secure minority language rights and institutional © Historia Actual Online 2014 89 National minorities... István Szilágyi guarantees given to various types of minority representation, this serves as an increasingly 2. SPAIN: FROM THE AUTONOMY powerful factor in the lives of national MODEL TO FEDERALISM minorities Between 1979 and 1983, in the first phase of the In a Europe of regions, classical definitions of institutional development of the democratic the state, the nation, citizenship, and local self- parliamentary monarchy which displaced the government systems have been widely modified Franco system, Spain saw the realisation of by the coexistence of identities of different types democratically regulated coexistence between and foundations, as well as the concurrence of the state (the Kingdom of Spain), historical processes of democratisation1. Juan José Linz’s nations possessing their own language (Basque, 1992 statement on multinational Spain has Galician, Catalan, Valencian), and regions gradually become universally relevant: “Today without a history3 (Cantabria, Asturias, Spain means a state for all Spaniards; it means a Extremadura, Madrid, Murcia, La Rioja etc.). In nation state for a large part of the populace, and Spain the population is made up of 20% of a state but no nation for a significant minority2”. Catalans, 6% of Basques, 2,5% of Galicians, and Around of the millenium the differencies 2,5% of Valencians. between Generalitat (seated in Barcelona) and the Spanish central Government became acute in It is a fact that by creating an autonomy model debuting the charge of legal status of Catalonia, resting on cooperation between seventeen self- its independence as a nation-state, which proved governing communities4, the Spanish new Juan José Linz’s findings. Although this process democracy has played an exemplary role in the has not been settled the Catalonian nation-policy solution of a centuries-old ethno-regional offers useful experiences for the autonomy of problem. The system formed between 1979 and the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin. 1983 has proved to be viable to the present day. This study analyses the possible framework, Article 148 of the December 1978 constitution circumstances and the demographic factors on taxatively lists issues within the competence of the basis of the Catalonian experiences and of autonomous communities. These are in turn the National Censuses in 2011 from the further detailed in the self-government statutes5, viewpoint of the autonomy-endeavour of the and the “autonomy pacts” struck by the central Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin. goverment and the national parties6. Map 1. Self-government Communities of Spain Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Espagne_communaut%C3%A9s_autonomes.png?uselang=es 90 © Historia Actual Online 2014 HAO, Núm. 34 (Primavera, 2014), 89-103 ISSN 1696-2060 The next Article, No.149 details issues Castilian, the official language of the Spanish exclusively belonging to the competence of State. All persons have the right to use the two central national bodies in thirty-two paragraphs. official languages and citizens of Catalonia have The legislator nevertheless provides the opportu- the right and the duty to know them8. This last nity for the Spanish parliament to transfer or point has sparked serious debates and raised cede all or selected elements in the scope of the grave constitutional concerns in Spain. Many central authority to all or selected autonomous consider the issue worded in the Statute a communities, thus realising the idea of a serious infringement upon political and rationally regulated democratic constitutional constitutional order. state based of full equality of rights and a fully developed system of national-regional auto- The Catalan solution (taking the Basque, nomy. The period between 1983 and 2006 saw Galician, and Valencian claims into consi- an unprecedented decentralisation and demo- deration) raises and at the same time contains cratisation process in the history of Spain. The the possibility and the necessity of a initial legal differences between the self- transformation of the constitutional model and government communities having a parliament of the launching of a general state reform9. their own and independent representation in the second chamber of the Spanish legislative 3. THE ADAPTABILITY OF THE MODEL authority, the Senate became levelled by the IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN middle of 2010. This may primarily be explained by the transfer of authority from the The events and processes taking place in the central government to the self-government larger state on the Iberian peninsula can serve as communities in the areas of healthcare as well as a lesson for national minorities striving for primary and secondary education. The state of autonomy in Central and Eastern Europe. autonomies thus exhibits characteristics similar to those of federal systems at present. For the Hungarian national minority living in multinational states in our area the Spanish- The relative stability of a democratic state Catalan solution – in terms of the cultural nation structure in the historical sense does not – has put the question of the scheme's validity preclude change. The institutional system is in a and its implementation on the agenda. Political process of constant motion. Changes pointing self-governance, personal and territorial auto- from the semi-federalism of autonomous nomy, the maintenance of identity through the communities to federalism, which are based on mother tongue as a possible official language, national and cultural identities, have markedly and the establishment and maintenance of the accelerated from the second half of the 1990s. In required institutional system have drawn July 2006, they led to the passing of the new attention to the adaptability of the democratic Autonomy Statute of Catalonia. The separation practice already valid in the European Union. of the autonomous province, which has gained The comparative analyses in the field of social independent nation status and the formation of sciences have had a positive influence