Course Title: National Minority Questions: Nationalism and Politics
Credits: 6
Code: BBNPO10700
Type of course (lecture/seminar) and hours per week/semester: seminar
Method of assessment (exam/practical grade): exam
Suggested semester: 1
Prerequisites (if any): Course description:
The course’s aim is to introduce students in the field of nationalism, ethnicity and national
minorities and to explain the theoretical framework of the topic. The course concentrates on the
major theories and approaches to nationalism.
Each class will start with a short lecture (30 minutes), where I will present the general framework of
the topic. Students will have to present in 10-15 minutes one of the compulsory readings. This will
be followed by discussions.
Course schedule
1. Introduction. What about is nationalism? Misconceptions on nationalism. (Brubaker,
Wimmer, Verdery)
2. Early understandings and approaches of nationalism. The roots. (Rousseau, J. S. Mill, M.
Weber, E. Renan, F. Meinecke, H. Kohn, J. Plamenatz, etc.)
3. Modernist approaches (Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson, Michael Mann, Liah Greenfeld,
Tom Nairn, E.J. Hobsbawm, Miroslav Hroch, John Breuilly, Michael Hechter, George
Schöpflin)
4. Pre-modernist (ethnosymbolist) approaches (Anthony D. Smith, Johns Hutchinson, John
Armstrong) and other approaches (A. Marx, C. Calhoun, Van den Berghe, O. Löfgren, etc.)
5. Ethnicity I. Anthropological perspectives. Culture. (Barth, Eriksen, Jenkins, etc.)
6. Ethnicity II. National identity (Cooper-Brubaker, Connor, Smith, etc.)
7. Philosophical approaches (Kymlicka, Tamir, Taylor, etc.)
8. Introduction. Methodology of research on national minorities. The question of definition.
Typologies of national minorities.
9. National minorities and the state
10. Ethnic/national movements. Ethnic mobilisation. Ethnic parties. Ethnic conflict and
ethnic/national violence
11. Minority rights. Minority protection. Self-determination. Autonomy
12. National minorities in Hungary. The Roma in Hungary
13. Hungarian national minorities in the neighboring states
14. Minorities in Western Europe
Requirements
Active participation and regular attendance (no more than 3 missed classes)
Students will have to read one or two articles or chapters for each class (20-30 pages). Students are
encouraged to approach systematically the topics and take actively part in the discussions. There
will be a strong emphasis on the understanding of the theories, and less on their applicability for
particular cases. At the end of the semester students are required to submit a paper.
Required and recommended reading:
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Hutchinson, John and Smith, Anthony D. (eds.): Nationalism: critical concepts in political
science. London & New York: Routledge, (5 volumes), 2000.
Smith, Anthony D.: Nationalism and Modernism: a critical survey of recent theories of nations
and nationalism. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
Brubaker, Rogers: Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New
Europe. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Gellner, Ernest: Nations and Nationalism, Oxford UK & Cambridge USA: Blackwell, 1983
McCrone, David: The Sociology of Nationalism: Tomorrow’s Ancestors. London and New
York: Routledge, 1998
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Daniele Conversi (ed.): Ethnonationalism in the Contemporary World: Walker Connor and the
Study of Nationalism. London/New York: 2002.
 Cordell, Karl – Wolff, Stefan (eds.): The Ethnopolitical Encyclopaedia of Europe. Palgrave
Macmillan, 2004.
 Szarka, László (ed.): Hungary and the Hungarian Minorities: Trends in the Past and in Our
Time. Atlantic Studies on Society in Change 122. East-European Monographs, DCLVII.
Boulder, Colorado – Atlantic Research and Publications, Inc. Highland Lakes, New Jersey.
2004.
 Tóth Ágnes (ed.): National and ethnic minorities in Hungary, 1920-2001. New York: Columbia
University Press, 2005.
 Kállai Ernő (ed.): The Gypsies/The Roma in Hungarian Society. Budapest: Teleki László
Alapítvány, 2001.
 Kántor Zoltán – Majtényi Balázs – Osamu Ieda – Vizi Balázs – Iván Halász (eds.): The
Hungarian Status Law: Nation Building and/or Minority Protection. Sapporo: Slavic Research
Center, Hokkaido University, 2004.
A more detailed syllabus (containing the compulsory and the recommended readings for each
topic) will be distributed at the beginning of the semester
Lecturers participating in teaching: Zoltán Kántor