Ideas, structures, and the (un)conventional politics of minority rights in Romania and Ukraine
Journal: Palgrave Communications
Year: 2017

Abstract This article uses a paired comparison of ethnic politics in postcommunist Romania and post-Soviet Ukraine to explore the example of language policy implementation, empirically speaking. It argues that the (variable) behaviours of linguistic minority elites—the Hungarians in Romania and the Russophones in Ukraine—are driven by elites’ ideas (or ideational elements), theoretically speaking. In Romania, a politics of interethnic compromise and the quid pro quo gained the upper hand. In Ukr