Conceptions of Citizenship and the Democratic Transition Process Citizenship Policies in Postcommunist Central and Eastern Europe

Maura Letmon

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hicks, Barbara

Keywords

Citizenship, Democritization, Eastern Europe

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

This project is a comparative examination of laws concerning citizenship in eight Central and Eastern European countries over the course of the postcommunist transition process, and an analysis of the extent to which the transition and subsequent move toward a more integrated European continent has affected conceptions of citizenship throughout Eastern Europe. A comprehensive analysis of citizenship laws and other relevant policies before, during, and after the transition to democracy is used in order to gauge the overall trend of patterns and transformations in citizenship policies. After examining the concept of citizenship and underlining the importance of citizenship in democratization and national determination, data is systematically presented on citizenship regulations of eight Central and Eastern European countries. The countries are grouped into three distinct categories � those with a history of shifting borders and populations, restored states, and post-partition states. Countries are analyzed diachronically � pre-transition and post-transition � and also compared with each other in the two different periods.This analysis finds that policies across Central and Eastern Europe were divergent before, during, and after the democratic transition process. The character of change over the course of the transition, however, provides evidence that citizenship policies in the region have not been substantially altered. Central and Eastern Europe has developed citizenship policies since 1989 based heavily on ethnicity and aimed at restoring former national communities, strengthening ties of kinship, and redressing past wrongs. In the eight cases studied here, the process of national consolidation and state building, external influences and Europeanization, and a preoccupation with the past have each to some extent influenced postcommunist conceptions of citizenship and the dynamics of citizenship policy. While different paths of national consolidation and democratization have led to the development of different conceptions of citizenship, the overall effect of the democratic transition process appears to be just one of a number of other possible contributing factors in the formulation and implementation of citizenship policies.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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