The Politics of Recognition: Governing Ethnic Diversity in New Democracies

Democratic states are widely expected to uphold civil liberties and protect the rights of ethnic minorities. Principles such as political equality, pluralism, and human rights imply that minorities should be able to express their identities, use their languages, and participate in public life. However, among democratic regimes, there is striking variation in the policies of states toward ethnic minority groups. Some democracies provide protection through constitutional recognition, education in minority languages, and public broadcasting in minority languages. Others offer only minimal or symbolic recognition, or actively suppress minority identities. The variation in ethnic minority policies in democracies raises an important question: Why do some democratic states recognize ethnic rights, while others do not? My dissertation aims to answer this question.

To address this, I developed a novel cross-national time-series dataset on state minority policies from 1974 to 2024, with a focus on new democracies in Europe. The dataset captures state minority policies at the group level over time. I employ a mixed-methods approach that combines large-N statistical analysis with in-depth comparative case studies (Spain-Turkey and Greece-Bulgaria). I examine how various forms of ethnic mobilization, both violent and nonviolent, impact state policy decisions and whether the sequence of ethnic mobilization matters. For the dissertation, I have conducted fieldwork in Bulgaria (2024) and Turkey (2022).