Whose democracy? : nationalism, religion, and the doctrine of collective rights in post-1989 Eastern Europe
The years since the collapse of communism in 1989 have witnessed a dangerous renewal of religious intolerance and nationalist demands across Eastern Europe. In this provocative application of moral philosophy to contemporary political processes, Sabrina P. Ramet draws upon the literature of Natural Law to demonstrate that liberal democracy depends on a delicate balance between individual and societal rights. Appeals to the collective rights of national and religious groups rest on spurious claims, as Ramet convincingly shows in her analysis of the situations of Hungarians in Slovakia, Albanians in Kosovo, theoretically inclined Catholic bishops in Poland, Serbs in Croatia, and contending forces in post-Dayton Bosnia. What Ramet calls the doctrine of collective rights actually subverts the liberal democratic project, legitimating instead intolerance and group exclusivity
Print Book, English, ©1997
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Md., ©1997
xii, 233 pages ; 24 cm
9780847683239, 9780847683246, 9780585080840, 0847683230, 0847683249, 0585080844
36470243
Introduction: The Holy Trinity: Rights, Legitimacy, Political Succession
1. Back to the Future in Eastern Europe
2. Eastern Europe's Painful Transition
3. The New Ethnarchy and Theories of Rights
4. Theocratic Impulses in Poland
5. The Struggle for Collective Rights in Slovakia
6. The Albanians of Kosovo
Conclusion: Collective Rights in the Dialectic of History