The East European ‘ethnic nation’– Myth or reality?

Abstract

Abstract. This article challenges the assumption that there is an essential difference between a West European ‘civic’ and an East European ‘ethnic’ conceptualisation of the nation. If there were such a distinction, one should be able to trace a distinctive ‘ethnic’ concept of the nation among the populations of East European countries. The article analyses public opinion in three East European countries – Latvia, Poland and Lithuania – using a survey of more than 1,100 respondents in each country. This data suggests, first, that we must question the model of a general East European definition of the nation as an ethnic unit. Second, it is evident that the respondents of each country define the nation differently. For example, Latvian respondents presented a specific concept of the nation – one with clear ethnic undertones. A certain number of the Latvian respondents defined members of the nation according to a single criterion: having Latvian as one's mother tongue. The article also shows how we can deconstruct the concepts of the ethnic versus the civic nation, and thus analyse their separate components. This makes the distinction less rigid, and encourages the discovery of different combinations of ethnic and civic arguments. The result should be more nuanced studies of concepts of the nation and of national belonging.

To Pay or Not to Pay? Business Owners’ Tax Morale: Testing a Neo-Institutional Framework in a Transition Environment

“…While in some countries the nation is seen as ethnically neutral and belonging to the nation is based on citizenship, in others To Pay or Not to Pay? Business Owners' Tax Morale: Testing a Neo-Institutional Framework… such as Latvia, ethnicity plays a more prominent role in defining who is included in the nation (Björklund 2006). Nationalities are associated with ethnic groups-Latvian and Russian.…”

Austerity against the Homo Sovieticus

“…The situation of the Russian-speaking minorities in Latvia and Estonia-which includes people of other ethnic backgrounds who used Russian as the lingua franca upon relocation to another Soviet republic-and the ethnic tensions in these countries have received much international attention (see Aalto 2003;Björklund 2006;Galbreath 2006;Lind 2003;Lühiste 2008;Richmond 2002). The exclusionary citizenship policies of Latvia and Estonia have been explained with reference to these countries' histories as they used ethnic identity to claim sovereignty (see, e.g., Björklund 2006;Richmond 2002).…”

“…The exclusionary citizenship policies of Latvia and Estonia have been explained with reference to these countries' histories as they used ethnic identity to claim sovereignty (see, e.g., Björklund 2006;Richmond 2002). Many studies moreover have assessed the socioeconomic status of the Russophone minorities in Latvia and Estonia.…”

Sports and Nationalism in a Globalized World

“…One central theme in the literature on nationalism is the distinction between a civic/ democratic and primordial/ethnic nationalism, often linked to an east-west divide (Björklund 2006;Jayet 2012;Smith 2009). The east-west context could also impact sport nationalism, although it is difficult to get at this divide except in the case of the countries in the study having (more or less) geographically clear eastÀ west positions.…”