Abstract: This article assesses the extent to which there is a legal requirement to hold referenda in the context of secessionist claims. If the right to secession is underpinned by the right of peoples to self-determination, ascertaining the will of the relevant people is of undoubted importance in securing political legitimacy. However, the legal requirement for a referendum is limited to cases involving agreements between relevant parties to hold a referendum and to cases where a state's constitutional law mandates a referendum as part of the secession process.

Abstract: Since 1970, states that are parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination have been reporting on the implementation of their treaty obligations. In the first two decades, states assumed the right to define the issues. Because of changes in the practice of the treaty-monitoring body, nongovernmental organizations in the more democratic states have been increasingly able to contribute alternative perspectives. This has been a significant step in the development of global civil society.

Abstract: This article presents an overview of the total number of ethno-national referendums since the French Revolution to the present day. After establishing a typology of referendums, the article goes on to present the trends in their use from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the present day. While referendums are said to be about democratic legitimacy and idealistic principles, the history suggest that short- and long-term political calculations have been the main motivations for holding them and that their overall number have grown, especially in times of geopolitical upheaval.

Abstract: The failure of democracy in Fiji is usually attributed to an ethnically fractured polity in which indigenous Fijians have asserted superior rights over those of immigrant communities, especially those of Indian descent. In 1987, an indigenous-dominated military ousted a government elected largely on the strength of Indo-Fijian votes, as did a civilian-led coup in 2000. Another in 2006, however, has confounded explanations of Fiji's politics based on a simple dichotomy of interests between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians when the military toppled a government controlled by indigenous nationalists. A constitutional review process, supervised by the military and purportedly leading to a new, liberal constitution enshrining political equality for all ethnic groups in Fiji, is now in train. This article focuses on the historic production of indigenous nationalism and the demand for “ethnic democracy” and an assessment of the prospects for future constitutional government along inclusive liberal lines.

Abstract: Focusing on the character of postcommunist extreme nationalist parties, the meaning of “the nation” and the role of historical memory in Central and Eastern Europe, the article defends the notion of “eastern” nationalism with an aim to suggest a more fruitful research into ethnic politics in the region. It argues that contemporary “eastern” nationalism has its own dynamic; it encompasses a number of themes and developments some of which confirm that the eastern part of the continent is more ethnic, but yet others that negate it and are perhaps showing a way forward in the Europe of the future.

Abstract: The article tackles some of the questions that arise from the invocation of “the people” in independence referendums in a contextualized way by examining the constitutional experience of two independence referendums: Quebec's unsuccessful independence referendum in 1995 and Montenegro's successful one in 2006. I argue that democratic theory does not presuppose the unified people as a decision-making unit, but rather that it conceals two, more logically primitive—and to an extent conflicted—general conceptions relevant to independence referendums. While not arbitrating between them, the concluding part argues that the tension in democratic theory ought to, at a minimum, contribute to reducing the vehemence of nationalist politics involved in attempts to achieve political independence.

Abstract: This article explains the impact of substate nationalism on the political dynamic surrounding ethnic kin migration through a case study of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu. Examples drawn from the migration studies literature identify ethnic kinship between refugees and host as an indicator of favorable reception and assistance. While this expectation is borne out to an extent in the Tamil Nadu case, it is tempered by a period of hostility following the 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by an LTTE suicide bomber, when the refugees were figured as a disruptive and dangerous presence by Tamil Nadu's political elites. A version of the "triadic nexus" model of kin state relations, reconfigured to accommodate the larger political unit within which the substate nationalism is incorporated, is proposed as a framework of analysis for these events. This can better account for Tamil Nadu's substate ethnonationalist elite's movement between expressions of coethnic solidarity with the refugees and the more hostile, security-focused response postassassination. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Abstract: This study examines the widespread use of referendums in entities that have declared statehood unilaterally but are not generally recognized or accepted as sovereign entities. Referendums in this situation pose a problem: to the voters, they are sufficiently a meaningful political process to warrant participation. Yet, to outsiders—including actors who may have large influence over whether the referendum's political goal can be implemented—the entire process may be meaningless. This article argues that the referendum process is not meaningless but symbolic: It fills the space between actual and desired political reality for the entities who vote. Drawing on referendum experiences in seven phantom states, the research shows that the referendums play a critical role in articulating political intentions, staking out a self-determination or sovereignty claim, displaying democratic legitimacy and forging international divisions and coalitions. Even not holding a referendum has a symbolic meaning regarding the ...

Abstract: Since Olson's free-rider paradox, scholars have questioned the applicability of rational choice analyses to the study of nationalism and other forms of collective action. The most heated debates have centered on the participation of ordinary group members rather than elites. Leaders lack the material resources to adequately remunerate grassroots activists for their exploits or to individually punish defectors. This article posits that the problem lies not with the strategic thinking of nonelites but with the way rationality has been conceptualized in the scholarly literature. We should challenge the standard assumption that rational behavior is limited to accruing material rewards. This article will reexamine this conjecture in light of alternative interpretations underscoring that individuals endeavor to maximize nonmaterial utilities.

Abstract: Despite continual territorial division in Cyprus both the EU and CTP-led Turkish-Cypriot governments tried to normalize intercommunal relations. To this end, the CTP government revised radically Cypriot history textbooks. Although this revision received diverse political reactions, the pupils’ perceptions of intercommunal relations through history teaching have not been examined so far. This article examines the results of revisions and argues that perceptions of intercommunal relations are significantly correlated with teachers’ politico-ideological orientations. It also argues that pupils from native families are more likely to accept novel ideas of the new textbooks than the pupils from immigrant families. The existing process of political socialization of pupils restricts further conciliatory attitudes in intercommunal relations. The responses of Cypriot history teachers in secondary schools and a selected sample of their students to a questionnaire constitute the data.

Abstract: Political institutions are socially constructed rules manifesting the preferences and strategic interactions of key actors at decisive moments. We investigate a contentious episode of institutional change in a divided society: the adoption of direct presidential elections in Turkey, approved by referendum in October 2007. Process tracing and regression analyses demonstrate that Kurdish politicians and voters in Turkey supported this reform. However, direct elections are unlikely to increase Kurds’ leverage over choosing Turkey's presidents and may even diminish it. Kurdish support for direct elections is better explained by the reform's broader anticipated impacts on the structuring of state power.

Abstract: Democratization has been heralded as both a “curse” and “cure” for ethnic conflict. Using a comparative analysis of ethnic conflicts in Senegal and Nicaragua, this article makes the case that the breadth of accommodation provided by a central government following democratization is a key variable that can provide a deeper understanding of why conflict sometimes worsens and sometimes ameliorates. By adopting a framework that conceptualizes the range of accommodation provided to territorial minority ethnic groups in advanced capitalist democracies as falling into three general categories, “loyalty,” “voice,” and “recognition,” the article illustrates that using a combination of these three strategies helped Nicaragua quell violent ethnic conflict. On the other hand, the conflict in Senegal continued because the newly democratic government refrained from using strategies to provide “voice” and “recognition” for the Diola minority.

Abstract: Parties of ethno-regional minorities have been created in a large number of ethnically diverse countries, but sometimes one such party is not enough. While previous work has investigated the consequences of intragroup party competition, this study looks at the causes of internal political diversification of minority groups. In states with multiple levels of governments, intra-ethnic rival parties emerge if minorities are local majorities in certain regions. Intra-ethnic party competition is limited, however, through the national electoral system, and especially high legal thresholds can restrict minority parties. This results in complex interaction terms of the territorial settlement structure of ethnic minorities and different types of electoral systems. The empirical analysis relies on Boolean Algebra (csQCA) and on a new cross-national dataset of 19 postcommunist democracies in Europe, counting 123 ethnic minorities.

Abstract: The hypothesis that sovereignty referendums tend to bring closer together the boundaries of states and languages is tested on 80 referendums ranging from 1791 to 2011. The hypothesis is supported for union, transfer, as well as separation referendums though less clearly so in the latter case. The data show also that the boundary convergence is more significant if the zone-by-zone option, rather than the traditional majoritarian rules, is properly used.

Abstract: The development of demands advanced by ethnic minorities has received broad coverage in the scholarly literature on divided societies. Current literature offers models that predict a radicalization of minority demands as the result of diverse factors, including modernization processes, discrimination, and a mother country's support for the minority's demands. The present article offers an alternative approach, one that combines the type of minority with the type of regime as fundamental elements that shape a minority's demands. The model presented in this article distinguishes between four situations in which minorities might find themselves: an indigenous minority living in a democratic regime; an immigrant minority living in a democratic regime; an indigenous minority living in an ethnocratic regime, and an immigrant minority living in an ethnocratic regime. The demands that a minority will develop in these different situations range along an axis from radical to moderate and from secession to integrati...

Abstract: This article argues that American Arab-Muslim political mobilization in response to conflicts abroad is predominantly influenced by their ethnic divisions and sectarian cleavages rather than shared religious commonalities. The article provides an analysis of Detroit's Arab-Muslim reactions to the conflicts in the Middle East from 2001–2009. It shows that while Arab-Muslims were particularly active in expressing their views on the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and the winter 2009 Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, the Iraq War of 2003 did not generate noteworthy activism. Varied expressions regarding different Middle Eastern conflicts are predominantly influenced by the different national origins of various Arab populations.

Abstract: Referendums have often been perceived to be incompatible with nationalism. “Democracies,” wrote William Sumner Maine, “are quite paralyzed by the plea of nationality. There is no more effective way...

Abstract: Regarding culture as the very basis of the concept of a nation, this article reflects on cultural nationalism's attitude towards the idea of a nation-state and national-political life. I will suggest that cultural nationalism is a concept that inevitably invokes the aspiration that art will overcome political life, undermining its role to provide the soon-to-be citizens with an adequate arena on which to contest their ethics. Thus, cultural nationalism might prevent politics from being involved in questions of identity and may imply some questionable consequences regarding democratic values such as individual autonomy. Hence, cultural nationalism keeps open the option to contradict its own intrinsic postulation that aims for self-sovereignty. This claim will be demonstrated with the case study of the Jewish national movement and more specifically through the examination of the writings of two important literary personae within it: David Frishman and Micha Joseph Berdichevski.

Abstract: The discussion of the place of language in politics has generally revolved around its relationship to nation-building and ethnic conflict. Yet, these are not always causally connected nor is language easily given up for the sake of a greater national or individual good. Attitudes regarding language can be influenced by anticolonialist resentments, memories of past injustice, status paranoia, xenophobia, collective megalomania, religion, ideology, and the desire on the part of a group to base its collective identity on a demarcation from a real or imagined enemy. This applies to many dimensions of language policies, including officialization, alphabetization, gentrification, and glossonym changes. We argue that governments choose language policies for strategic reasons. Whether it is to legitimize or subordinate a language or whether or not the policy is itself the objective, these choices may have unintended consequences.

Abstract: This article argues that referendums in societies coming out of war often fit into the conflict resolution rather than the conflict transformation paradigm. As conflict resolution devices, they may be one-off events rather than part of a longer term attempt to recalibrate relationships between antagonistic groups. Using a number of case studies, the article argues that unless the ground is prepared beforehand, referendums may have a limited ability to bring about reconciliation. Some well-timed referendums have advanced peace processes at critical moments, but these are exceptions and we should be cautious in recommending them as exemplars to other cases. The article highlights three common contextual issues that limit the conflict amelioration possibility of referendums: the exclusion of key constituencies from debates on the referendum process, a lack of voter education, and generalized insecurity.

Abstract: The latest round of negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem commenced in 2008 with a pledge to submit any agreement to separate simultaneous referenda. Unlike the aborted Annan Plan that was rejected in referenda in 2004, this round of negotiations was meant to be qualitatively different in being for and by “Cypriots.” This article assesses the negotiations given the 2004 precedent and legacies. Does the current process entail a qualitatively different approach to design that could affect the outcome of a future referendum? Opportunities to bring citizens into the process have been missed. Moreover, due to stalemates, the international mediators have had to exert more pressure, leading to internationalization and nullifying the “Cypriot-led” process.

Abstract: The Oslo Accords failed to end Israeli-Palestinian violence and led to a final settlement of the conflict. This article examines Israeli attitudes toward conflict resolution and argues that the peace process, despite its setbacks, has increased Israeli support for certain concessions. While support for the “Oslo Process” may have declined, Jewish Israeli acceptance of the creation of a Palestinian state has risen dramatically. Israelis remain committed to continuing the peace process, they just remain highly skeptical that the process will succeed. The article examines the sources of this skepticism. Both lack of trust in Arab aspirations and religiosity are the primary determinants of Israeli unwillingness to make concessions for peace. Trust is tied to present conditions rather than past conditions of conflict. Thus, if trust could be rebuilt, Israeli Jews would be considerably better poised to make political and territorial concessions for peace than they were at the start of the “Oslo Process.” Althou...