The public legitimacy of minority claims : a Central/Eastern European perspective

Bibliographic Information

The public legitimacy of minority claims : a Central/Eastern European perspective

Plamen Makariev

(Routledge studies in governance and public policy, 27)

Routledge, 2017

  • : hbk

Available at  / 2 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

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.

Table of Contents

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

by "Nielsen BookData"

Related Books: 1-1 of 1

Details

Page Top