Politicization of Ethnicity: The Moravian-Silesian Movement in the Czech Republic and the Silesian Movement in Poland—A Comparative Approach

Abstract

Ethnoregionalism in Europe is a phenomenon usually studied in the context of Western Europe. Still, in Central and Eastern Europe, there are some social and political movements that can be categorized as ethnoregionalist. The phenomenon started to play a role even before the Great War and in the interwar period, but was suppressed during the times of socialist regimes. It resurfaced immediately after 1989 during the times of transformation of political systems to fully democratic systems when problems of decentralization, authority, and division of power became openly discussed. In this article, I compare two such movements in the context of their political potential. The Moravian-Silesian movement in the Czech Republic and the Silesian movement in Poland have both similarities and differences, but the article mostly focuses on the evolution of these movements.

Regional Politics and Ethnic Identity: How Silesian Identity Has Become Politicized

“…The social science works of Sekuła (2009), Sołdra-Gwiżdż (2010), and Wódz and Wódz (2004), as well as the cultural studies by Gerlich (2010), Kamusella (2007), and Szmeja (2017), are the most well-known. Muś (2019), Myśliwiec (2013), and Trosiak (2016) are among the few political science scholars who have shown interest in the topic. Although scholars have studied the tension between ethnicity and politics, especially among the political behaviors of Upper Silesian society, the question remains: How has Silesian ethnic identity become politicized?…”