CIAO DATE: 04/04

Ethnic Democracy and Estonia: Application of Smooha's Model

Abstract

This paper applies a model of ethnic democracy elaborated by Professor Sammy Smooha of Haifa University, Israel, to Estonia, a case which is usually regarded as marginal in this regard. This application shows that Estonia can be characterised as a combination of a strongly-defined ethnic democracy (citizens of the core ethnic nation are dominating the other citizens) and a control system (citizens of the core ethnic nation are dominating the stateless individuals of non-core ethnic origin). As the number of stateless persons is diminishing, the system of control slowly disappears and ethnic democracy may prevail. The legal foundation of ethnic democracy in Estonia is in the Preamble of its Constitution.

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