CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Dambrauskas, Karolis |
|---|---|
| Title | Imagining Ethnic Democracy: Polish Minority's Response to the Governance of the Lithuanian State |
| Summary | This thesis analyses the governance of national minorities in Lithuania and asks how members of Lithuanian Polish minority go about living in an ethno-democratic Lithuanian state. In Lithuania tensions between dominant and minority ethnic groups are caused not by what the state does, but rather by what it doesn't. Solutions for the minority rights related problems have been delayed for years. This poses the questions – how the conflict between Lithuanian ethnic majority and Polish ethnic minority is managed and prevented from turning into its hot stage and how the stability of the state's ethno-democratic regime is sustained? Based on an ethnographic field research with a combination of participant observations and interviews conducted with members of Polish minority in several Lithuanian towns and Vilnius during the period of January and later in March and May 2016, this thesis finds that the ambiguity of Lithuanian ethno-democratic regime is reflected in the lives of the members of Polish minority. The thesis also shows that although members of the minority explain this ambiguity in a different way and therefore undertake different strategies for the improvement of minority situation, they identify themselves with the Lithuanian state. The thesis provides a ground for the further argument that perceived common threats is used to negotiate the state's ambiguous posture vis a vis its national minorities and to persuade the state to take a more active and effective stance in terms of the protection of minority rights. |
| Supervisor | András Kovács, Luca Váradi |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/dambrauskas_karolis.pdf |
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