Ethnonationalism and Democratization in the Russian Federation

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Of all the challenges in post-communist transitions, none has been more difficult to manage than the resurgence of ethnonationalism. The unraveling of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR speaks of the risks of opening the political arena. The rise of ethnic conflicts underscores how easily claims for sovereignty can spread across groups and regions, and from central to regional and local governments. Even when the breakup of the state has involved relatively little violence, as in the USSR, the conflicts raise serious questions about whether multiethnic successor states can survive the post-communist transition intact. In Russia, many of the same problems that dissolved the Soviet Union now challenge the federal government. Liberal reformers have come to see ethnonationalism as a major threat to democratization -- inimical to the spirit of tolerance and the concern for individual rights that liberal democracy requires. Yet the level and character of ethnonational mobilization in non-Russian territories is far from clear and its connection to support for democratization even less so. This project examines the nature and level of ethnonationalism and support for democratization in three regions of the Russian Federation: Northern Ossetia, Tatarstan and Sakha. Mass surveys will be conducted and contextual data will be attached to all individual level responses. The project will produce a dataset of 3,000 individual interviews to be archived at the completion of the research project.