Minority Parties, Parties Not Unlike the Others: The Case of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR)

Abstract

Most of the studies on “ethnic,” “ethno-political” or “minority” parties in Central Europe oscillate between two interpretations of the impact of “ethnic parties” on democratic processes. The first interpretation acknowledges the value of “ethnic parties” that guarantee the political participation of minority groups and thereby integrate them into the political system. The second interpretation adopts an opposite stance. Minority parties are perceived as weakening newborn democracies by institutionalising cultural diversity and encouraging the “ethnicization” of states. The examination of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR) proposed here aims at getting out of this dual interpretation based on a normative vision of democracy and often on a primordial representation of identity. The politicization of identity is based on changing identity configurations, and reshapes them at the same time. Besides the political entrepreneurs of minority communities are faced with a post-communist context characterised by the elasticity of the political landscape at a time when the social and territorial bases of power are being redefined. These local transformations are interacting with European as well as regional dynamics—such as the political changes taking place in the Hungarian “Kin-State”.