The East European Gypsies: Regime Change, Marginality, and Ethnopolitics

Description

This is the first attempt by a social scientist to explain the predicament of Gypsies (or Roma), Eastern Europe's largest ethnic minority, and their relationship to the region's states and societies. Barany examines the Gypsies' socioeconomic and political marginality and policies toward them through seven centuries and in seven East European states. He illuminates the reasons why the Roma have consistently occupied the bottom of social, economic, and political hierarchies regardless of historical period or geographic location. Barany argues that the current nostalgia of many Gypsies for the socialist period is easy to understand, given the disastrous effect of the post-communist socioeconomic transformation on the Roma's conditions over the last decade. He explains the impact of Gypsy political mobilization, and the activities of international organizations and NGOs, on government policies. This pioneering multidisciplinary work will engage political scientists, sociologists and historians, as well as students of ethnic and racial studies.

"It is an extremely rare occasion when a social scientist embraces the literature and research approaches of many different disciplines in a clear, concise, and well-crafted fashion. ...kudos are due to Zoltan Barany for his groundbreaking research, pioneering scholarship, and unwavering commitment to rigorous analyses of the Eastern European Roma." Journal of Politics "New and very important is Barany's extensive coverage of Gypsy leadership on the national level in the several countries, as well as on the international level. ...Barany offers us a pioneering comparative study on a subject of considerable importance to students of Eastern Europe and of relevance to all who labor in the field of comparative politics where regime change, marginality, and ethnopolitics come to the fore." American Political Science Review "Zoltan Barany's work represents one of the first attempts to study the Gypsies from a social-science perspectives...I recommend it highly for those interested in the place of the Roma in Eastern Europe, as well as for students of the position of minorities within the region in general." Slavic and East European Journal