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Minority Rights in China

Joshua Castellino and Elvira Domínguez Redondo

in Minority Rights in Asia: A Comparative Legal Analysis

This chapter is divided into four sections. The first section seeks to provide a brief overview of the history of legal reforms in China, and underscore the changing attitude of the government to ... More

This chapter is divided into four sections. The first section seeks to provide a brief overview of the history of legal reforms in China, and underscore the changing attitude of the government to human rights. The second section identifies the groups considered minorities or ‘minority nationalities’ in China. The third section seeks to extrapolate principles of minority rights in Chinese law, drawing on the Chinese Constitution, the Law of the People's Republic of China on Regional National Autonomy, and from authoritative commentaries on the same. This is followed by various sub-sections focusing on policy and legislation over specific issues pertaining to minorities in China, such as education, religion, political participation, and economic development. The final section analyzes the remedies available and the challenges in making these effective.Less

Non-Territorial Autonomy: The Meaning of ‘(Non-)Territoriality’

Markku Suksi

in Minority Accommodation through Territorial and Non-Territorial Autonomy

Three institutional forms of non-territorial autonomy (NTA) are presented as possible mechanisms of governance: personal autonomy, functional autonomy, and national cultural autonomy. National ... More

Three institutional forms of non-territorial autonomy (NTA) are presented as possible mechanisms of governance: personal autonomy, functional autonomy, and national cultural autonomy. National cultural autonomy is singled out for a more detailed study against the backdrop of Bauer and Renner’s theories, looking particularly at Estonia, Finland, and Serbia. Because territorial autonomy is clearly more common as a form of organization, different non-territorial forms of autonomy have remained in the sidelines. The need to tailor-make each solution means that setting up non-territorial forms of autonomy is probably perceived as difficult, complex, and arduous. Therefore, and somewhat unjustifiably, the category of NTA is commonly populated by examples of national cultural autonomy. If NTA is set up, such institutions should not become vehicles of symbolism and of façade participation, but be tasked with realistic functions and the necessary public power for the promotion of, inter alia, the linguistic rights of minorities.Less

Internationalization and the paradox of economic nationalism

Thomas Fetzer

in Paradoxes of internationalization: British and German trade unions at Ford and General Motors 1967-2000

The chapter contends that trade unions can be conceptualized as actors who contribute to the reproduction of nationalism through the ‘banal’ everyday framing of concerns and aspirations in terms that ... More

The chapter contends that trade unions can be conceptualized as actors who contribute to the reproduction of nationalism through the ‘banal’ everyday framing of concerns and aspirations in terms that reflect traditional rhetoric of nationalist ideology. Following Anthony Smith's influential definition, nationalist ideology is understood as embodying a set of three core ideals, namely national identity, autonomy and unity. The chapter's main argument is that internationalization – as exemplified in the cases of Ford and General Motors – can paradoxically reinforce rather than diminish the significance of such banal nationalist rhetoric.Less

Independent States and Unfulfilled Expectations

Simon Rabinovitch

in Jewish Rights, National Rites: Nationalism and Autonomy in Late Imperial and Revolutionary Russia

As discussed in the book’s final chapter, Jewish claims to national minority rights made their way to the Versailles Conference’s deliberations and eventual treaties, and the question of collective ... More

As discussed in the book’s final chapter, Jewish claims to national minority rights made their way to the Versailles Conference’s deliberations and eventual treaties, and the question of collective Jewish rights was one with considerable ramifications in the early Soviet Union. With the breakup of the Russian and Austrian Empires, a Jew might find him- or herself either a citizen of the Soviet Union, a state hostile to religious traditionalism but eager to integrate Jews as individuals, or a citizen of one of the new nation-states, which were indifferent to religious traditionalism but reluctant to integrate Jews as full participants in national politics. Only in Lithuania and Ukraine, and then only briefly, did Jews find themselves in states willing to grant Jews their national autonomy. All the post-Versailles states eventually squelched the one political aspiration uniting the different strands of Jewish politics in Russia and Eastern Europe: autonomy.Less

The EMS Is not Enough: The Need for Monetary Union

Tommaso Padoa‐Schioppa

in The Road to Monetary Union in Europe: The Emperor, the Kings, and the Genies

The long‐term prospects of the European Monetary System (EMS) are examined from a non‐technical viewpoint, considering the system as a variable rather than a given. The prospects are seen as ... More

The long‐term prospects of the European Monetary System (EMS) are examined from a non‐technical viewpoint, considering the system as a variable rather than a given. The prospects are seen as comprising three phases. The first phase, which has now concluded, is consolidation. The second phase is the current phase, and is the period in which the ‘inconsistent quartet’ emerges. This involves seeking to achieve the impossible task of reconciling free trade, full capital mobility, fixed (or managed) exchange rates, and national autonomy in the conduct of monetary policy. The third phase is starting to foresee European Monetary Union (EMU); in this phase full implementation of free trade and capital mobility will occur.Less

Russian National Cultural Autonomy 
in Estonia

Vadim Poleshchuk

in Managing Diversity through Non-Territorial Autonomy: Assessing Advantages, Deficiencies, and Risks

Estonia has implemented the principles of national cultural autonomy in the interwar period and after 1991, that is, when its independence was regained. Cultural autonomy laws of 1925 and 1993 are ... More

Estonia has implemented the principles of national cultural autonomy in the interwar period and after 1991, that is, when its independence was regained. Cultural autonomy laws of 1925 and 1993 are different, especially as regards control over public education in minority languages. Cultural autonomies in pre-war Estonia led to or preserved self-segregation of Jewish and German minorities. Nowadays the autonomy concept seems to belong to the domain of symbolic rather than instrumental policies in Estonia. Cultural autonomy as a specific self-organization of minorities fits in with the idea of nation-state based on genuine ethnic nationalism. Autonomies have been founded by local Swedes and Ingrian Finns but not Russians. The creation of a single representative body for a heterogeneous minority group is hardly feasible. Furthermore, there are fears that cultural autonomy might be used for mobilization in Estonia of the largest Russian minority group.Less

From Empire to Multilateral Player: The Deep Roots of Autonomy in Russia

Bill Bowring

in Minority Accommodation through Territorial and Non-Territorial Autonomy

This chapter focuses on Russia’s unlikely experiment in national cultural autonomy (NCA). It looks at the wide variety of forms of autonomy in the Russian Empire and provides an overview of a number ... More

This chapter focuses on Russia’s unlikely experiment in national cultural autonomy (NCA). It looks at the wide variety of forms of autonomy in the Russian Empire and provides an overview of a number of cases, including Finland, the Baltics, and Russian Germans. It examines religious diversity after Catherine II’s reforms, Bolshevik nationalities policy, the creation of the territorial autonomies in 1920–2, Terry Martin’s The Affirmative Action Empire, and the Russian government’s new ‘Strategy of State National Policy for the Period to 2025’, an apparent retreat from the NCA model. This chapter seeks in particular to address the paradox identified by Alexander Osipov—why does the concept of NCA sound attractive to ethnic activists? Its aim is to show that autonomy has rather deeper roots in Russia than might at first be supposed.Less

Jewish Autonomy in Inter-WarLithuania: An Interview withYudl Mark

Dov Levin

in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 14: Focusing on Jews in the Polish Borderlands

This chapter presents an interview with Yudl Mark, focusing on the problems inherent in the autonomous experiment in Lithuania. Mark was a young Folkist politician who later became an important ... More

This chapter presents an interview with Yudl Mark, focusing on the problems inherent in the autonomous experiment in Lithuania. Mark was a young Folkist politician who later became an important Yiddish folklorist and philologist. The interview itself refers to the period after the First World War, when Lithuania was the scene of the most far-reaching attempt to put into practice the principle of non-territorial Jewish autonomy. This experiment was accompanied by high hopes in the Jewish world. Given the mixed character of the area, Jewish national autonomy would also make the state more attractive to Belarusians and Germans who might be incorporated into it.Less

The Multinational Empire Revisited: Reflections on Late Imperial Austria: Robert A. Kann Memorial Lecture 1989⋆

in From Vienna to Chicago and Back: Essays on Intellectual History and Political Thought in Europe and America

This chapter reports the work of Robert Kann, as well as his judgments and his interpretations. Kann's profound commitment to the values of liberal democracy, for equal rights and social justice, ... More

This chapter reports the work of Robert Kann, as well as his judgments and his interpretations. Kann's profound commitment to the values of liberal democracy, for equal rights and social justice, emerges time and again in his scholarly work. It then addresses two travelers who went to Vienna's Western Railway Station—the Westbahnhof: Sigmund Freud and Count Franz Thun. The most rapidly advancing field of Habsburg history has been economic history. Moreover, it explains the dualist structure, and some comments on the issue of national autonomy so-called, in the Austrian part of the Empire. “National autonomy” became the great battle cry in Austria in the decade prior to the outbreak of World War I. It is the transfiguration of the late Habsburg Empire that is one of the most interesting mental and psychological phenomena in present-day East Central Europe.Less

The Politics That the Euro Needs

Martin Sandbu

in Europe's Orphan: The Future of the Euro and the Politics of Debt

This chapter reflects on the political imperative of establishing a coalition among eurozone countries and institutions that can achieve the economic goals listed in the previous chapter and ... More

This chapter reflects on the political imperative of establishing a coalition among eurozone countries and institutions that can achieve the economic goals listed in the previous chapter and articulates an alternative to the transfers-for-centralised-control paradigm that is driving voters to political extremes. There is one alternative which it has been claimed does not exist: greater national autonomy to pursue countercyclical fiscal policies combined with a framework for orderly sovereign debt restructuring; a eurozone fiscal framework that prioritises the collective fiscal stance; and mutualised debt issuance by a coalition of the willing. Such an alternative, if it had been pursued early in the crisis, would have addressed the balance-of-payments vulnerability of weaker euro members, reduced the cost of stagnation by requiring less austerity, and avoided the strain that the ‘no alternative’ rhetoric has inflicted on Europe's democracies.Less

Policy and the Making of Landlords and Tenants: Allotment, Landlessness, and Creek Politics, 1906–1920s

David A. Chang

in The Color of the Land: Race, Nation, and the Politics of Landownership in Oklahoma, 1832-1929

This chapter traces how public policy was crucial to the making of a capitalist order in Oklahoma after statehood in 1907. It notes that along with taxation and credit, a critical policy in the ... More

This chapter traces how public policy was crucial to the making of a capitalist order in Oklahoma after statehood in 1907. It notes that along with taxation and credit, a critical policy in the making of a landlord elite and landless tenantry was the principle that race was fixed and unchanging. The chapter observes that in a context of rapid land loss, Creeks engaged in a combination of explicitly political action, politically charged cultural and spiritual practices, and day-to-day resistance to challenge the denial of their national autonomy, the loss of their lands, and the cultural transformation that allotment was intended to bring about. It observes that the power of federal, state, and even county land policy and lack of authority over it encapsulated the political challenges of the statehood era for Creek people.Less

If Europe Dared to Write Down Debt

Martin Sandbu

in Europe's Orphan: The Future of the Euro and the Politics of Debt

This chapter offers an alternative history in which the eurozone did the right thing from the beginning. As a denunciation of past mistakes and an admonition for future policy, it shows that ... More

This chapter offers an alternative history in which the eurozone did the right thing from the beginning. As a denunciation of past mistakes and an admonition for future policy, it shows that restructurings could have been managed in ways that were as orderly as the bail-outs that actually took place, if not more so, and with much greater fairness. Europe's economic well-being and political health would have been vastly better as a result. Two things would have been very different. First, the custodians of the single currency would not have been faced with temptations to put the euro's integrity in doubt. Second, greater national autonomy would have encouraged better collective solutions — both because the negotiations over what those solutions should be would have been more balanced, and because the greater room for policy manoeuvre by national governments would have produced a wider range of policy proposals.Less

The Margin of Appreciation: Theory and Practice

Jan Zglinski

in Europe's Passive Virtues: Deference to National Authorities in EU Free Movement Law

This chapter examines the application of the margin of appreciation in free movement cases. It identifies the doctrine’s legal scope and investigates the scenarios in which the European Court of ... More

This chapter examines the application of the margin of appreciation in free movement cases. It identifies the doctrine’s legal scope and investigates the scenarios in which the European Court of Justice defers to national authorities. A statistical analysis suggests that there is a significant gap between theory and practice, with only a small number of factors influencing the way in which the margin of appreciation is used. The results show how much regulatory autonomy Member States retain in free movement law. They also expose which concerns the Court prioritizes in its jurisprudence and which decisions it feels safe, or forced, to delegate to domestic institutions.Less