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Political Representation of National Minorities: a Case Study of Minority Parties in Serbia

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Political Representation of National Minorities: a Case Study of Minority Parties in Serbia Political representation of national minorities: a case study of minority parties in Serbia Jelena Loncar MA in Politics by Research The University of York Department of Politics September 2013 ABSTRACT This thesis explores the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation of national minorities. Previous studies have emphasized the importance of descriptive representation and justified the need for affirmative action measures such as reserved seats or a lower electoral threshold to achieve descriptive representation. However, this thesis differs in claiming that substantive representation of minority interests is equally, if not more, important than descriptive representation. It is argued throughout the thesis that an equal right to political representation consists of the right to be present (descriptive representation) and the right to representation of interests and perspectives (substantive representation). Although mere presence of minority representatives might have some symbolic benefits, members of minority groups primarily need the representatives to act in their interests and attempt to influence public policies. Hence, this thesis provides an answer to two important and yet insufficiently researched questions: is descriptive representation a sufficient condition for substantive and if not, in what conditions can descriptive representatives act as substantive? In aim to understand in what conditions can descriptive representatives act as substantive, this research provides an empirical analysis of the behaviour of the representatives of minority parties in the VIII National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. More particularly, the analysis includes content analysis of all interventions in plenary parliamentary debates of the 12 national minority MPs in the period between June 2008 and May 2012. The research shows that the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation differs across minority parties. Two groups of MPs can be distinguished from the data: MPs elected on minority electoral lists creating parliamentary group of national minorities in parliament and those who were elected through pre- electoral arrangements with mainstream political parties. It is concluded that minority political parties are not a priori substantive representatives of national minorities and that descriptive representatives elected on minority electoral lists perform better as substantive representatives than descriptive representatives elected on electoral list of mainstream parties. Finally, some institutional changes are suggested which could enhance substantive representation of national minorities. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ 2 LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ 5 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION ........................................................................................................ 6 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 7 1.1. THESIS OVERVIEW ......................................................................................................... 7 1.2. RESEARCH DESIGN ...................................................................................................... 10 1.3. SAMPLE ....................................................................................................................... 13 1.4. THESIS STRUCTURE ..................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 2: POLITICAL REPRESENTATION OF GROUPS ......................................................... 17 2.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 17 2.2. MODES OF POLITICAL REPRESENTATION .................................................................... 20 2.3. REPRESENTATION OF GROUPS – CALL FOR DESCRIPTIVE REPRESENTATION ............. 24 2.3.1. Equality and group rights ..................................................................................... 25 2.3.2. Right to political representation - institutional responses .................................. 30 2.4. SUBSTANTIVE BENEFITS OF DESCRIPTIVE REPRESENTATION ..................................... 35 2.5. WHEN DOES SUBSTANTIVE REPRESENTATION OCCUR? ............................................. 39 2.6. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER 3: SETTING THE SCENE – NATIONAL MINORITIES IN SERBIA ................................. 45 3.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 45 3.2. ETHNIC STRUCTURE OF THE POPULATION IN SERBIA ................................................ 46 3.3. LEGAL STATUS AND MINORITY RIGHTS IN SERBIA ...................................................... 51 3.4. DESCRIPTIVE REPRESENTATION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES IN SERBIA ..................... 57 2 3.5. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 60 CHAPTER 4: FROM DESCRIPTIVE TO SUBSTANTIVE REPRESENTATION ................................. 62 4.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 62 4.2. INSTITUTIONAL INCENTIVES FOR SUBSTANTIVE REPRESENTATION ........................... 63 4.3. METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 65 4.4. RESULTS....................................................................................................................... 67 4.4.1. General ................................................................................................................. 68 4.4.2. Thematic analysis for MPs according to pre-electoral coalition agreements ..... 72 4.4.3. Themes, priorities and discourse of individual MPs according to political party affiliation ........................................................................................................................ 74 4.5. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 81 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 84 5.1. THESIS SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... 84 5.2. RECOMMENDATIONS: TOWARDS A BETTER MODEL OF MINORITY REPRESENTATION ........................................................................................................................................... 87 5.3. CONCLUDING REMARKS AND FURTHER RESEARCH ................................................... 92 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................... 94 APPENDIX A: Territorial concentration of national minorities in Serbia ........................... 94 APPENDIX B: Results of parliamentary elections for political parties of national minorities in Serbia, 2000-2012 .......................................................................................................... 95 LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................ 97 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 99 3 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Ethnic composition of the population of Serbia and regions in Serbia according to the 2011 Population census (%) ............................................................................................ 47 Table 2: Descriptive representatives of national minorities in the VIII National Assembly .. 68 Table 3: Minority related or minority/ regionally relevant issues by the type of pre-electoral coalitions ................................................................................................................................ 69 Table 4: Minority and regionally related issues by party affiliation ...................................... 71 Table 5: Addressing issues on parliamentary agenda by the type of electoral coalition ...... 71 Table 6: Themes in minority and regionally relevant interventions by the type of pre- electoral coalition .................................................................................................................. 72 Table 7: Territorial concentration of national minorities in Serbia according to the 2011 Population Census (%) ........................................................................................................... 94 Table 8: Results of the 2012 parliamentary elections for political parties of national minorities ............................................................................................................................... 95 Table 9: Results of the 2008 parliamentary elections
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