Through the principle of EU conditionality, the European Union has proven itself to be somewhat of a normative actor in a number of key foreign policy areas including in minority rights. In 2003, Moravcsik and Vachudova proposed that “the accession process imposes something of a double standard in a handful of areas, chiefly the protection of ethnic minority rights, where candidates have to meet standards that the EU-15 have never set for themselves”. This assertion has been widely proven in academic literature to be correct for the case of the Central and Eastern (CEEC) enlargements of 2004 and 2007. However, there has been limited scholarly attention on whether this assertion still applies to states currently seeking European Union Membership. This thesis proposes that this ‘double standard’ in minority rights obligations has evolved into a four-way divide in minority rights standards taking into account the CEEC and the present accession processes involving the Western Balkan states. The thesis analyses this four-way divide, focusing on the key case studies of Latvia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It furthermore rejects the arguments offered to justify the different standards which have emerged in minority rights standards across the region. With the European Union facing turbulent times with the June 2016 Brexit vote and rising Euroscepticism, it is essential that the European Union seek to bring accession requirements and membership obligations in line with each other and develop an acquis communautaire on the fundamental area of minority rights.

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The aim of this dissertation is to explore the dynamics of political change in minority language politics and policy in Europe. For this purpose, the study focuses on the Hungarian minorities in Romania and Slovakia, the Russian speakers in Ukraine, and the Carinthian Slovenes in Austria. One major finding is that the political strategies of minority elites that are sensitive to compromise and politically deemphasised solutions predict positive change in the political relations between language groups and in policy. Further, the political behaviour of minority elites is argued to be best explained by ideational as opposed to structural and institutional causes. While the latter certainly have some explanatory power, they nonetheless leave crucial variation in the behaviour of minority elites dependent on ideas which they carry in their heads and upon which they rely in order to analyse the surrounding structural conditions. The empirical analysis of the thesis exploits data from 30,000 press releases collected at Factiva and Lexis-Nexis Academic databases over the course of two years, 112 interviews conducted by the author over the course of one year in all the countries under study (including with 4 state leaders, 14 ministers, and 45 members of parliament), and extensive primary and secondary material in several foreign languages.

This thesis examines the emergence and evolution of ‘progressive activism and organisation’ between 1976 and 2006 in the African township of Guguletu and the coloured township of Bonteheuwel within the City of Cape Town. In doing so it compares both how activism has changed over time (including as a result of democratisation) and how it differed between and within these two communities. Whilst at heart an empirical study of activism it seeks to move beyond the specificities of the cases studied to also draw broader conclusions about the nature and causes of collective action and organisation. Drawing on both social movement and class theory it aims to shed some light on the fundamental question of the relationship between structure and agency - why do people act and what defines the form of action they take? It combines a quantitative study of the changing relationship between race, class and state policy with qualitative studies of activism in Guguletu and Bonteheuwel. These two studies cover in detail: the development and unfolding of the riots of 1976; the great boycott season of 1979/80 which saw large numbers of Africans and coloureds across Cape Town drawn into school, bus and consumer boycotts; the development of activism between 1980 and 1985, including the impact of the United Democratic Front; the township unrest of 1985-7; the transition period between 1988 and 1994; and post-apartheid activism in the two communities. It draws on theories of class which recognise the importance of peoples’ positions within the state’s distributional networks (citizenship), experiences and expectations of social mobility and the impact of historical experience of class formation on expectation (moral economy). In doing this it shows how differences in race, education, age and labour market position all interacted to pattern activism in the case studies. Struggles in Cape Town throughout the period 1976-2006 were not dualistic conflict between classes, races or between the oppressed and forces of global capital, nor were they mechanistic responses to the opening and closing of political space. They were complex coalitions of competing and collaborating class forces which were defined by the underlying nature of the city’s political economy and which emerged in interaction with changing opportunities for action.

[...]Finalisant cette recherche, l’on entrevoit un long parcours à suivre, qui peut se structurer, parmi d’autres, autour des questions suivantes qui restent ouvertes : Comment garantir juridiquement, d’une manière efficace, les droits sociaux aux minorités en accord avec les particularités culturelles de chacune d'entre elles ? ; Comment harmoniser les systèmes juridiques autochtones avec celui de l’État en vue de favoriser des relations justes parmi tous les citoyens ? Comment développer légalement les droits des minorités sans tomber dans un gigantisme immaîtrisable ? et, Comment promouvoir les droits de l’homme au-dedans des mêmes communautés minoritaires sans tomber dans le péril de porter atteinte à leur identité et autonomie ? Dans ce contexte une chose est certaine, seulement a travers une véritable démocratie pluraliste, engagée avec le respect et promotion des droits de l’homme, est possible arriver à une paix durable en Colombie. / [...]Finalizing this research, it sees a long route to follow, which can be structured, among others, on the following questions which remain open: how to ensure legally the social rights to minorities in accordance with the cultural characteristics of each of them; How to harmonize indigenous legal systems with that of the State in order to promote a fair relationships among all citizens?; How to develop legally the rights of minorities without falling into a complex Gigantism? and, how to promote the human rights within the same minority communities without the risk of interfering with their identity and autonomy? In this context one thing is certain, only through genuine pluralistic, committed democracy with respect for and promotion of the rights of man, is possible to reach a lasting peace in Colombie.

In light of the growing criticism of multicultural policies of integration, there has been an increased interest in the questions surrounding political integration of immigrant-origin minorities. In particular, public and policy debates have focused on the importance of a shared sense of Britishness, the incompatibility of certain cultural values and practices, as well as the role of grievances and discrimination in determining the successful integration of the growing population of ethnic minorities. The work presented in this thesis consists of three separate studies that look at different aspects of political integration. The first study examines determinants of the strength of attachment to Britain among immigrant-origin individuals. Specifically, it looks at the role of: (1) indicators of integration and assimilation, (2) immigrants' conservative ideological beliefs, (3) the 'desirable' characteristics of immigrants, and (4) immigrants' placement on the individualism-collectivism scale. Empirical analyses are conducted using three datasets: Understanding Society, Citizenship Survey and Ethnic Minority British Election Study. The findings from individual and multi-level regression models show that collectivist orientation, determined by both individual differences as well as cultural differences of immigrants' countries of origin, is an important predictor of self-reported strength of British identity. In consequence, it is argued that the subjective importance of Britishness among immigrants is perhaps associated with integration/assimilation outcomes to a lesser extent than it is commonly believed. The second study presented in the thesis examines the applicability of the arguments derived from group consciousness and assimilation theories for explaining the patterns of political participation among British ethnic minorities. The chosen indicators of assimilation and group consciousness include: (1) measures of attachment to national and ethnic community, (2) perceptions of ethnic grievances, and (3) embeddedness in national versus ethnic civic community. The statistical analysis based on EMBES data shows that group consciousness indicators have a mobilising effect on non-electoral activities, and influence political party as well as ethnic-specific policy preferences. On the other hand, greater embeddedness in the national rather than ethnic community has a positive effect on electoral participation. Therefore, it is argued that both theoretical approaches are relevant for understanding political involvement. However, the effects of group consciousness and assimilation indicators operate in more nuanced ways than the classical formulations of these theories would predict. The final study examines the role of ethnic organisations for political mobilisation of two distinct communities: Bangladeshis and Caribbeans based on the data from forty qualitative interviews with community activists located in Birmingham and Oldham. The comparative qualitative enquiry aimed to (a) explore whether the existing differences of political integration outcomes between the selected communities can be partially attributed to the character of their co-ethnic organisational networks; and (b) to explore how and why co-ethnic associations might affect the political mobilisation of local communities. The findings from the interview data indicate that activists from these two communities have very different attitudes towards political agency and the role of co-ethnic organisations. In general, most of Bangladeshi organisations can be described as having instrumental goals and pro-mainstream orientation, whereas most Caribbean organisations could be characterised as having expressive goals and anti-mainstream orientation. In consequence, it is argued that the different character of ethnic civic organisations has an important impact on the ways these communities engage in politics, both as individuals and as groups.

This thesis argues that pluralism and diversity pose a more fundamental challenge to liberal constitutionalism than is sometimes recognised by liberal political theorists. While the challenges presented by moral pluralism at the philosophical level, and by cultural diversity at the socio-cultural level, have received a great deal of attention in recent political thought, the background within which these themes become salient has not always been fully acknowledged. What is new in the modern world is not so much diversity of lifestyles, but the disintegration of frameworks that traditionally provided an unproblematic basis for political authority. What this modern challenge forces us to confront then, is the idea that ‘the people’ who are subject to law, are also, as citizens, the ultimate source of political authority. I consider in detail the work of two contemporary political theorists who have provided among the most sustained and far-reaching attempts to respond to this challenge, Charles Taylor and Jürgen Habermas. Both make a significant contribution to responding to the contemporary situation of pluralism by taking on board the ‘dialogical’ nature of identity, and the role of the ‘people’ as the ultimate source of political power. However each places a heavy reliance on a privileged standpoint that may shield political judgement from the full implications of modern pluralism: Habermas, by appealing to ‘post-conventional morality’ and Taylor, by appealing to an incipient teleology.