Managing Ethnic Diversity in Post-Soviet Context: The Cases of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article considers the designs and institutional frameworks of ethnic and linguistic diversity policies in Northern Eurasia by comparing Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. The authors focus on the modes of framing diversity, formal institutional settings, and the practices of government. The research questions concern the meaning and the origins of common policy patterns and institutional features. The authors interpret the commonality and resilience as the outcomes of institutional inertia and a flexibility of policy patterns that secures their acceptance by different segments of the elites and populations across ethnic divides.