Hungarian Minority Politics in Post-Socialist Romania: Interests, Strategies, and Discourses

• Published in: Acta Universitatis Sapientiae. European and Regional Studies no. 10; pp. 79 - 106
• Main Author: Toró, Tibor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Scientia Publishing House 2016; Scientia Kiadó
• Subjects: Political Sciences; Politics / Political Sciences; political mobilization; minorities; Hungarians in Romania; elites; postcommunism
• ISSN: 2066-639X; 2068-7583

This paper analyses the integration strategies formulated by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania and the Hungarian political elite in the post-communist period. It argues that the internal debates of the political community are formulated in a field where other actors (the Hungarian and the Romanian state, political parties, European institutions, etc.) carry out their activities, which deeply influences both the chosen strategies and the needed resources for their implementation. Moreover, it questions the monolithic organization of the minority organization, showing that DAHR as the representative of the minority community was shaped by several internal debates and conflicts. Also from 2003 these conflicts grew beyond the borders of the organization and since 2008 we can follow a whole new type of institutionalization. In achieving this, I introduce three strategies – individual integration, collective integration, and organizational integration – which are chosen by different fragments of the Hungarian minority elite both toward the Hungarian and the Romanian political sphere. Throughout the 1989–2012 period, the outcome of the conflict between the supporters of these strategies is deeply influenced by the policies of the two states.