1st Edition

The Public Legitimacy of Minority Claims A Central/Eastern European perspective

By Plamen Makariev Copyright 2017
    214 Pages
    by Routledge

    214 Pages
    by Routledge

    Problems involving minorities still constitute a significant challenge for public policies in countries such as the ones on the territories of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Unassimilated, facing the cultural "non-transparency" of their lifeworlds, and usually without autonomy, their problems are quite different from those in Western Europe and North America.

    This book presents a study of public policies concerning the national, ethnic, and religious minorities in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It explores the opportunities available for applying the model of deliberative democracy to the domain of designing and realizing minority policies. It examines the possibility that minority groups can influence – and ideally even pre-decide – minority policies by legitimizing claims concerning their needs and rights in a way that leaves democratic public opinion no choice but to support them. Adopting a novel approach to the public legitimization of minority claims, it proposes that the general public’s evaluation of the credibility of minority claims should focus on the procedural qualities of the intra-group (ethical-political) discourses through which these claims are articulated and substantiated.

    This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of public policy, minority politics, the politics of Eastern Europe, political theory and comparative politics.

    Introduction

    Why Communicative Empowerment of Minorities?

    Overview

    Methodology

    Demographic Data about the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

    Part I: Identities and Policies

    1. Minority Identities

    Minority

    Identity and Culture

    Whose Identity?

    Identity: Essence or Construct?

    Identity: an End, or a Means?

    2. The Complexity of Minority Issues

    Cultural Differences

    Group Solidarity

    Social and Political Factors

    3. Political Power and Minority Policies

    Socialist Internationalism

    Consociational Democracy

    The Politics of Presence

    Identity Relations and Political Power

     

    Part II: Identities and Communicative Power

    Introduction II

    4. Communicative Power

    Public Legitimization within the Framework of the Habermasian Model of the Public Sphere

    The Plurality of the Public Sphere

    Genuine and Fictitious Legitimacy

    5. Legitimacy and Public Deliberation

    What Is "Public Deliberation"?

    Differentia Specifica of Deliberative Decision-Making

    The Unforced Force of the Better Argument

    Procedure as a Safeguard against the Manipulation of Public Communication

    6. The Internet as a Medium for Public Deliberation

    How Does "Communicative Power" Work?

    The Public Sphere and the Internet

    Public Deliberation and the Internet

    7. Is Intercultural Public Deliberation Possible?

    The Challenges of Communication across Cultural Barriers

    Solutions Proposed

    8. The Communicative Empowerment of Minority Groups

    Ethical-Political Discourses as Instances of Public Deliberation

    Ethical-Political Discourses as Enclave Deliberations

    The Dual Identity of Minority Group Members

    Conclusion

    Biography

    Plamen Makariev is Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, Sofia University, Bulgaria.