Abstract
Special rights (such as a right to representation) are often used to address under-representation of minority and marginalised groups in political institutions. The case of Roma community in Slovenia is no different. Using a framework of social and political marginalisation, our article outlines asymmetry and exceptionality in the existing minority protection provisions for Slovenian Roma. We argue that the existing provisions are a consequence of majority’s perception of Roma as racialised, marginalised, and undeserving group. We show that the limited access to special rights for Roma is not an oversight in the Slovenian democratic institutional design but a result of deep-rooted stereotypes and racialisation that this marginalised group is subjected to. More broadly, the case of Slovenian Roma demonstrates how principles of racialisation and marginalisation can help us understand absences of different marginalised minority groups from frameworks of special protection.
Highlights
Roma are probably the largest minority group in Slovenia
Our contribution demonstrates how the hierarchy of political rights can be racialised distinguishing between groups deserving and undeserving of protection
Full special rights are afforded to members of Hungarian and Italian communities in Slovenia, autochthonous Roma are granted partial rights, and other Roma remain invisible
Summary
Roma are probably the largest minority group in Slovenia. The need to protect this group was recognised in the 1991 Constitution – the founding document of the new independent Republic. This is significant, we argue, because Roma are a minority and a marginalised group. The founding constitution is grounded in liberal notions of minority representation which recognised the need to grant special rights to minority populations (Bešter et al, 2017). The absence of Roma from the list of minorities would seem less strange than the peculiar halfway house solution that Slovenia manufactured. We argue that this case presents a intense problem for a community known to lack political power, suffering from stigmatisation and racialisation and, as McGarry (2017) shows, confronted by discriminatory and inflammatory media representation
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