Abstract
AbstractThis article explores how the concept of minority national-cultural autonomy (NCA) has been defined and practiced in contemporary Estonia, combining data from interviews and previously unanalyzed archival sources to trace debates and policymaking processes back to 1988 and ascertain: why (and for whom) NCA was adopted; the functions ascribed to NCA institutions; and the effectiveness and legitimacy of the model in the eyes of different “noncore” ethnic communities. In so doing, the article uses NCA as a fresh lens for analyzing the more general politics of post-Soviet state and nation-building in the country, situating this case within the “Quadratic Nexus” framework. Estonia’s NCA law is generally viewed as irrelevant to ongoing issues of diversity governance in the country. However, Finnish and Swedish minority autonomies have been established and, in recent years, there have been three applications to establish a Russian NCA. None have been approved, and yet some authors see them as evidence that NCA could (and should) have a role to play in bringing about a more meaningful accommodation of ethnic diversity. Having reviewed the evidence, however, the article concludes that this claim is misplaced.
Highlights
During the past 25 years, several states in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe have adopted institutional frameworks based on the concept of minority national-cultural autonomy
This article has provided the first comprehensive analysis of the background to Estonia’s national-cultural autonomy (NCA) law, situating the debates of 1988–1993 and the subsequent practice of NCA within the quadratic nexus framework. It illustrates how the NCA concept has been deployed instrumentally by elites operating within different ethnopolitical fields
It shows how these fields have been shaped by broader geostrategic understandings and an international minority rights discourse which provided a common frame of reference for all parties implicated in the process of Estonian state- and nation-building
Summary
During the past 25 years, several states in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe have adopted institutional frameworks based on the concept of minority national-cultural autonomy ( known as nonterritorial autonomy, hereafter NCA).
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