The model of ethnic democracy: Response to Danel

The Citizenship Conundrum in Post-Communist Europe: The Instructive Case of Croatia

“…These strategies inevitably created favourable conditions for conflict in the context of ethnic diversity and competing claims over territory. The analysis of Croatian citizenship policies explored above allows me to suggest that post-Tu dman Croatia can be seen as an exemplary case of 'ethnic democracy' according to the criteria defined by Sammy Smooha (2005aSmooha ( , 2005b. In particular, Croatia may be seen as a failed ethnic democracy during Tu dman's reign but as an ethnic democracy today.…”

The ethnic democracy debate: how unique is Israel?

“…Though Smooha cites several western examples of ethnic nationalism 1 he points out that there is a tendency in East European countries towards ethnic nationalism. As for Israel, Smooha emphasises that ‘Zionism emerged in Eastern Europe as a brand of ethnic nationalism’ (Smooha 2002: 489).…”

“…Yet, recently, perhaps as a reaction to the so called “post‐Zionist” criticism, the question whether Israel is “normal” has been pushed to the center of the academic debate. Paradoxically, it was Sammy Smooha's “ethnic democracy” model which had challenged the notion of the uniqueness of Israel (Smooha 1997, 2002). Smooha had proposed that Israel was an archetype of a special type of democracy – ethnic democracy – which he distinguished from “civic democracy”.…”

“…Smooha's notion of Israel as an “ethnic democracy” maybe did not flatter Israel as a (liberal) democracy, yet it was an attempt to ‘normalise’ Israel and Israeli national identity by classifying it alongside other democracies that are “ethnic” (Smooha 1990: 391; Smooha 2000: 565–6; Smooha 2002: 477). Indeed, Smooha's model was heavily influenced by the classical typology which divided European nationalisms into western/civic/liberal on the one hand, and eastern/ethnic/illiberal, on the other.…”

“…Smooha's model came under attack from both “left” and “right”. All in all, the debate tended to focus on the question whether the “ethnic” political community that the model describes in general, and Israel, in particular could be properly termed a ‘democracy’ (Dowty 1999; Smooha 2002: 495). The criticism from the left considered the concept “ethnic democracy” as a contradiction in terms and consequently the countries that are “ethnic” as non‐democratic, or as “ethnocracies” (Ghanem et al 1998; Yiftachel 1999).…”