ECMI Publications Database

JEMIE - Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe is a peer-reviewed electronic journal edited under the auspices of the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI). JEMIE is a multi-disciplinary journal, which addresses minority issues across a broad range of studies, such as ethnopolitics, democratization, conflict management, good governance, participation, minority issues and minority rights. It is devoted to analysing current developments in minority-majority relations in the wider Europe, and stimulating further debate amongst academics, students and practitioners on issues of instability and integration that are hampering democratic development in Europe - both East and West.

Special Issue - Reconceptualizing Autonomy in Post-Communist Europe?

Autonomy is increasingly viewed, both by the international community and local actors, as the key to conflict resolution in post-communist Europe. Often seen as a flexible means of political compromise between state unity and the recognition of difference within state boundaries, autonomy is closely associated with attempts to prevent, manage or resolve ethnic and regional conflicts. Yet much conceptual thinking on autonomy tends to assume a foreign institutional model that is transplanted into a pre-existing stable system, thus ignoring pre-existing institutions of conflict regulation, the increasing involvement of external actors, and the dynamics of transition in which most of the post-communist countries find themselves.

This special focus asks whether novel forms of 'post-communist' autonomy arrangements can be discerned. How have such arrangements arisen - from a natural response to domestic challenges or through external pressures or the involvement of outside actors? What has been the impact of the transition context on autonomy arrangements and how are they shaping the evolution of minority rights norms and regimes in the wider Europe? The Editors encourage further contributions to this timely issue.

Articles

Risky Strategies? Putins Federal Reforms and the Accommodation of Difference in Russia
David Cashaback
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The Thorny Issue of Ethnic Autonomy in Croatia: Serb Leaders and Proposals for Autonomy
Nina Caspersen
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What Belgium Can Teach Bosnia: The Uses of Autonomy in Divided House States
Sherrill Stroschein
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