ETHNIC NPOs AS AN ORGANIZATIONAL FORM OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTIVITY OF MINORITIES IN CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA

Abstract

Ethnic parties are conventionally considered as the main form of politicization of ethnicity, but in those countries where they are absent, the social and political activity of ethnic minorities is manifested in the form of non-governmental organizations - “ethnic NPOs”. In contemporary Russia, both the main areas of activity of ethnic NPOs and the normative and institutional infrastructure of their interaction with the authorities are strongly unified by the framework of the state ethnic policy. However, an in-depth study of several cases (the sample from municipal units of Ulyanovsk and Penza regions) allows us to conclude that the most important interactions on issues, which are significant for both NPOs and the authorities, are most often carried out outside the framework of the normative and institutional infrastructure, through other channels. As a result, actual interactions vary considerably. An important factor is the resource potential of the ethnic NPO, the share of an ethnic minority in the population, as well as the presence of a strong leader. In some cases, the format of localization of an ethnic group is of key importance: if a minority lives apart from others, the resource weakness of an NPO is compensated by the concentration of resources, and sometimes by the practice of combining statuses, when the leader of an ethnic NPO occupies an important political and administrative position at the local level. In other cases, human resources come to the fore. In general, it can be argued that ethnic NPOs to some extent compensate for the absence of ethnic parties. They do not demonstrate their own political ambitions, but they are able to promote the interests of ethnic minorities using the available channels and mechanisms of political representation.