Untitled-25
YEAR XI. 2005
altera 28
Contents
Editorial- 3
ETHNICAL
AND REGIONAL PARTIES IN EUROPE
Peter Lynch
The Policy Impact
of Regionalist Parties- 5
The
study identifies regionalist policy impact in the areas of agenda setting,
institutional and noninstitutional autonomy and in other policy areas unrelated to
autonomy policy. Regionalists have had impact in opposition, in regional government and also in alliance with central government. Policy impact has been
especially important when a regionalist party is in regional government. In
par-
ticular, the
existence of regionalists in regional government facilitates a rare link-
age between the
two sets of literature on regionalist parties and regional governments. However, any simple causal connection between regionalist parties and
regional government is difficult to sustain because of the variable success of
regionalists and the role of “top-down” factors in generating regional
governments.
The progressive regionalization of European states in the post-war period has
created opportunities for regionalist mobilization and policy impact on a continuing basis. Whilst the policy impact of the PNV or CiU in regional
government
is possible to establish at present, there is the additional likelihood of
future policy
impact by nationalist administrations in regional government in Scotland and
Wales at some future point in time. Policy impact is not something simply to be
measured historically but a continuing development as witnessed by the relatively recent growth of regionalist parties such as the Lega Nord and Bloque
Nacionalista Galego.
Frans Schrijver
Regionalism after
Regionalisation: Regional Identities, Political
Space
and Political Mobilisation in Galicia, Brittany and Wales- 20
Many
States have introduced regional layers of government, often as a
responparties se to demands for autonomy made by nationalist or regionalist
movements.
Although regional autonomy is often presented as a way to accommodate
ethnoterritorial conflict, and both regionalism and regionalisation have been
important research themes over the past decades, empirical research on the effects of those decisions is sparse. This paper analyses the aspects of regional
autonomy that affect regionalist politics through a comparison of three regions
in
European States where relatively recently regional autonomy was introduced:
Galicia, Brittany and Wales. The states they are part of, Spain, France and the
United Kingdom, introduced regionalisation in different ways: in degrees of regional autonomy, asymmetry between regions, and consideration of historical
and cultural territories. This paper concentrates on the development of
regionalism within the political parties within the three regions mentioned. It
discusses
trends after regionalisation in the representation of and utilisation of
regional
identities in political discourses, ideological developments, particularly on
the
issue of regional autonomy, and reactions to the political opportunities for
mobilising support offered by the introduction of a regional political space
after
regionalisation. The paper analyses those elements with respect to regionalist
parties, but also for regional sections of statewide political parties, which
will be
affected by regionalisation as well. The paper concludes with a discussion of
the
effectiveness of regional autonomy as a means to accommodate regionalist and
nationalist
conflict.
László Szarka
The Impact of
Governing Role Assumption on Autonomy Policies
of the Hungarian
Minorities Parties Abroad- 41
In the
postcommunist period, there can be identified some prevalent principles in
the activity of the organisations and political parties of the Hungarian
minorities. Especially in the early 1990s their policies aimed at deepening and
internationalizing minority rights protection and, as a sequel, at conceiving autonomy
arrangements. Then a rethinking and institutionalization of the Hungarian governments-Hungarian minorities relations took place. Assumption of the
governning
role by Hungarian minorities parties was the next step that led to the creation
of
the consociative or the consensual pattern. The idea of “national
reintegration”
designed within the European integration process has emerged both in the form
of regional cooperation with neighbouring states and of projects of extending
Hungarian citizenship to Hungarian minorities abroad. Hungarian minorities
parties participation to government, their activity in the coalition
governments in
Romania, Serbia, Slovakia have been perceived differently by the majority and
the minority public opinion in the respective countries. In the last fifteen
years,
the correlations and contradictions in the above mentioned policy trends of the
Hungarian minorities could not be brought together in one unitary framework, in a strategical
planning of national policies, the main obstacles being the ever
deepening confrontations betweent the political parties in Hungary, the lack of
proper consultations terms between Hungarian minorities abroad and the Hungarian government.
CASE STUDY
István Haller
The Hădăreni Lawsuit- 63
The
study focuses on one of the most serious interethnic conflicts between Roma
and non-Roma that took place in Romania in the early 1990s and on the trial
conducted by the Romanian courts regarding the issue as well as the sentence by
the
European Court of Human Rights. Victims of the enraged majority community the
Roma later faced gross human rights violations by the authorities that gave in
to
political pressures and, instead of proceeding to an unbiased inquest, further
fueled a conflictual frame of mind. After over a decade since the conflict, after
both a
trial and a lawsuit have been completed, after the European Court of Human
Rights
issued a sentence, the Hădăreni case is still of topical interest. First of
all, the
Romanian Government must comply with the obligations it assumed on the amiable
solution to the
case. Then, legal controversies are still to be dispelled as there are
different
interpretations to the ECHR solutions, some voices claiming that the sentences by the High Court of Justice quash all civil obligations of the
criminals,
while others say those sentences quash only the obligations whose object
overlap
the ECHR judgements. The ECHR noted that the attacks were directed against the
applicants because of their Roma origin. The applicants’ Roma ethnicity appears
to have been decisive for the length and the result of the domestic
proceedings,
after the entry into force of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and
Fundamental Freedoms in respect of Romania.
DOCUMENT
Venice Commission
Opinion on the Law for the
Election of Local Public
Administration
Authorities in Romania- 93
The
law itself is acceptable, and does not differ substantially from similar laws
found in other democratic countries, except for Article 7. Whilst Article 6 of
the
Law stipulates that candidatures for local councillors and mayors can be put
forward by i. political parties; ii. political alliances; iii. organisations of
national minorities, as well as by iv. the candidates themselves, independently
Article
7 seems to consider as organisations of National Minorities only those represented in Parliament. This definition makes entitlement to the special rights
for
national minorities, laid down in the law, dependent on a condition that may
imply certain restrictions. This may amount to a violation of the obligation of
Romania, laid down in Article 4, paragraph 1 of the Framework Convention, to
guarantee to persons belonging to national minorities the right of equality
before
the law and of equal protection of the law. It may also block political
competition
within one and the same national minority in violation of the principle of
pluralistic democracy It may well be that under the Romanian Constitution and the
Romanian Law on Elections to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate,
organisations of citizens belonging to national minorities failing to obtain
the
number of votes for representation in Parliament have the right to one seat in
the
Chamber of Deputies. However, not only does this not solve the unequal position
of separate organisations within a particular national minority, the right to
one
seat in the national Parliament is subject to certain requirements which a
certain
national minority may not be able to meet at the national level, while that national minority has a strong numerical presence at the local level. Precisely
as
participation of national minorities in public affairs at local level may, in
some
respects, be even more important for them and their members than participation
in the public
affairs at the national level, participation should not be made de-
pendent on their
numerical representation at the national level. Even if the objective to avoid excessive fragmentation of the elected bodies is legitimate, it
must
not hinder pluralism excessively
TRANSYLVANIAN CONVERGENCIES
Paul Philippi
Opinion on Prejudices on the Medieval
History of Transylvania- 104
Admitting
from its very outset that historiography cannot be completely objective, the aim of the study is to dispell some of the stereotypes imbuing the
present
Romanian collective perception of Transylvanian history built up by the recent
communist and postcommunist history teaching.
The
pre-Hungarian medieval Transylvania never was an ethnically or politically
unitary country on the contrary, it was characterized by a changing ethnical
pluralism. On the other hand, medieval Europe had as its paradigm legal
cathegories of masters/subjects and not the ethnical one. Reading medieval history in ethnical terms can be misleading. All the three political entities – the
aristocracy the Szeklars and the Saxons – were partial entities of the
Transylvanian
principality which was a part of the Hungarian kingdom and as such a subject to
the developments occuring in it. There was no historical conspiracy of the Hungarian, Szeklar,
Saxon communities in Transylvania against the Romanian community, as history handbooks still claim. „Unity in diversity” is therefore one
of
the best collocations to describe medieval Transylvanian history.
Ovidiu Pecican
A
Model for the Idea of South and Eastern Carpathian State:
The Teutonic Entity in the Carpathians (1211-1225)-112
A
foray into the medieval history the paper examines the contribution made by the
Teutonic Order to the history of Transylvania.Taking advantage of the already
extant Saxon community in Transylvania, King Andrew II proposed the Teutonic Order to settle its knights along the Eastern border of the Hungarian Kingdom,
considering thus that he would have an outstanding guardian both against the constant Cuman expeditions and against his adversaries from among the nobility Indeed, the Teutons managed to defend the kingdom, they pushed the borders beyond
the Carpathians, strengthened the new territories by building fortresses,
defeated
Cumans and even converted many of them to Christianity The Teutonic Order also
had the support of the Holy See that envisaged a widening of the crusade’s
horizon
and a scope enlargement of the strategies employed in the crusade in order to
carry
out its twofold aim: setting Jerusalem free and reuniting the two
Christian Churches.
Relying on the
Pope’s support and on their own strength, the Knights seeked to gain
independence from the Hungarian Kingdom, a fact that determined the Hungarian
king to invite a new wave of Saxon settlers in the area to whom he bestowed
certain
priviliges in order to counterbalance the influence the Teutons enjoyed.
Despite all
papal insistency Andrew II
finally
expelled the Teutons keeping at the same time
the Saxon settlers, his victory being thus a diplomatical one. Although
short-lived,
the Teutons’ presence left traces in the area – demographical, social,
political and
confessional. One of the most significant contributions made by the Teutons was
the emergence and consequent spreading of the idea of a statal entity distinct
from
the overall Hungarian Kingdom.
DEBATE
Postponed Reforms – Necessary Reforms- 131
The
debate initiated by the Pro Europa League had as its starting point the need
to conceive a consistent package of laws on national minorities, on political
parties, on electoral processes, on regionalisation as all these aspects are
closely
related. Apprehension was expressed that the Romanian State, instead of taking
advantage of its envisaged EU accession and integration and instead of using
those processes as a vehicle for further democratization, will enter the
European family in its
present unreformed, inconherent and contradictory form. Institutional reform should have been a priority, but there has been a lack of
political
will to this end as the political class is the first to profit from
politization of state
institutions. This state of affairs has its roots in 1948 when the Romanian
State
ceased to exist, when the communist Constitution was adopted, an act that
simply
abolished the State, all its function being taken over by the Communist Party.
A
pillar that could have sustained reform, the Constitutional Court, is not solid
enough since it does not play its part in a check and balances system, but, on
the
contrary it has become involved in political games.
Regarding
regionalisation, the Agencies for Regional Development now extant cannot be seen as the first step in a proper decentralisation/regionalisation, but
rather
as obstacles in the way of such a proces since their only purpose is to provide
a
framework necessary for EU fund absorption. Placing Romanian problems in a
wider context, one notes that Central European transition has been based on an
elite settlement, but, while this fact has been acknowledged and overcome in
other
postcommunist countries, in Romania this elite settlement boils down to the
creation of a partitocracy frozen in its present state for over a decade.
Extreme skeptical voices claimed that no reforms are possible in this country
since there are two major obstacles: we ourselves and the EU. When talking
about
and tackling
reforms, we don’t have a common language, while some commenta-
tors think that
the Romanian State has ceased to exist, others think the State is
exceedingly strong, pervading areas of societal life where it should have no
part
at all. The EU acts as an obstacle inasmuch as it requires reforms, but does
not
check thoroughly enough whether they are really implemented.
The political elites and the state institutions, frozen as they are, seem less
and
less able to manage the complex reality in this country; regionalisation could
make the country more manageable as it would split the complexity into smaller,
easier-to-handle entities; on the other hand, the EU can be seen as a mechanism
that could help Romania come out of a too long lived deadlock
ECUMENICA
Pertti Ahonen
A Minority
State Church in a Liberal Democracy: A Case in the
East-West
Interface of Finland- 149
Finland
is a unique member among those other countries that apply the “state
church” regime in organising church-state relations. In Finland there are two
national churches, but despite this the state is both de jure and de facto nondenominational. There is the large Lutheran Church of Finland (LCF), and there is
the small Orthodox Church of Finland (OCF). This paper focuses upon the
latter of these. Finland has had a rather liberal church-state regime since the
1870s, and there has been further de-regulation lately both as regards the OCF
and the LCF Note that unlike the LCF, the OCF is also subject to a certain
amount
of international regulation through its canonical lien with the Ecumenical
Patriarchate of Constantinople. The OCF is a representative of religios-political
pluralism in Finland, and it has played roles as a link between many of the 1940
and
1944 Finnish and Finnish-Karelian refugees to the remaining Finland. It is also
a community to attract some but not all of the recent Russian immigrants to
Finland. Although it is a minority state church, the OCF is well visible in
Finland, it
has a good reputation, and it has an established slot in the religious life of
the
Finns. The position as the smaller state church has been beneficial for the
OCF,
although there are no gross benefits with at least some costs such as some
degree
of dependency. The particular Finnish “state church” regime with two state
churches and without any serious candidates to that same status may not always
have nurtured the trite feature of economic efficiency of the state churches in
the
best way. In principle the Finnish state could proceed in the de-regulation by
admitting other religious communities to a similar position as the one of the
state
churches, but de facto there are no communities for the present moment that
would
have the volume
and the interest to proceed in this direction.
INTERVIU
Doina Baci
Interview
with Gábor Kolumbán:
In Local
Public Administration „the Ceauşescu Model
is
Still Operating”- 176
Gábor
Kolumbán defines the governing crisis as one of the main problems Romania is facing today and which dates back to communist times. In the
postcommunist
period Romanian society has developed faster than the political class and the
political-administrative system so it is mandatory that a deeper societal
structuring should be identified and used as a pattern for redefining the
political-administrative system. In the European context, regional parties can better respond
to
the public opinion’s expectation as they are closer to everyday problems;
greater,
nationwide parties themselves are compelled to give up very clear-cut
ideologies
and to come to the fore with trans-ideological messages. A solution for Romania
could be the stregthening of civil society that should be allowed to
participate in
local elections and thus fill the democratic deficit existing now at the local
level.
Then nationwide political parties would have to undergo a thorough reform in
order to compete on the political stage. On the other hand, it is hard to think
of having sound
regional political parties in Romania as long as there are no territorial-administrative regions within which they could compete. Although the political class constantly dismiss the issue of regionalisation claiming it has
already taken place as there are eight regions for development, regionalisation
is a
process Romania should undertake in order to close the protracted transition
chapter and also to smoothly integrate into the European Union.
REVIEW
Laura
Ardelean
Michael
Shafir:
Între
negare şi trivializare prin comparaţie. Negarea Holocaustului
în ţările
postcomunisate din Europa Centrală şi de Est
(Between Denial and
Comparative Trivialization. Holocaust
Negationism
in Post-Communist East Central Europe )- 186