Vol. 45, No. 3-4, September-December 2017
Steven D. Roper
Compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights: Testing Competing Theoretical Perspectives with Post-Communist Countries
This research focuses on the rulings of the ECtHR from 1998-2005 regarding violations of the ECHR to analyse broad patterns of compliance by the members of the Council of Europe, while also aiming at determining if what we (still) broadly refer to as post-communist states differ in their violation patterns compared to other member states and whether regional differences in post-communism (East Europe versus former Soviet Republics) is a more meaningful distinction in identifying pattern of compliance. This article begins by outlining the theoretical literature on compliance. Enforcement theorists characteristically stress a coercive strategy of monitoring and sanctions while managerial theorists embrace a problem-solving approach based on capacity-building and technical expertise. Constructivists assume that states are socialized into the norms and rules of international institutions. This data analysis of over 5000 cases finds that the utility of the theories varies by the form of sanction imposed by the ECtHR across all members. In addition, while post-communist country behavior differs from other members, there are also considerable differences among post-communist countries.
Srdjan M. Jovanovic
The Misuse of Language: Serbo-Croatian, 'Czechoslovakian' and the Breakup of States
Language, besides being known as the best form of communication known to man, is also known to serve as a marker of (national) identity. In countries such as Yugoslavia, Serbo-Croatian, as the language used by the majority of the population, saw itself splinter into allegedly different languages from the 1990s onwards, from the breakup of the Yugoslav state, as it was used as a separating factor for the strengthening of national identities. In Czechoslovakia, on the other hand, even though the state boasted two separate languages (however genetically close), linguistic nationalism did not find a fertile ground to flourish with the breakup of Czechoslovakia. This article explores the linguistic, political and societal differences and similarities between linguistic and political issues in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, comparing the diverging policies of language as a defining factor of national identity.
Christopher L. Miller
American Missionaries and the Formation of Modern Bulgarian National Consciousness
Following Ernest Gellner, this paper asserts that national consciousness is a modern phenomenon which arose in response to certain structural preconditions that came together differently in different national contexts. Furthermore, it suggests that this crystallization process is complex, involving the attainment of a tipping point at which time discrete semi-dormant processes merge into a dominant movement. It argues that in Bulgaria, one of the most influential factors in establishing these preconditions and the final tipping point was the publishing and educational work done throughout the nineteenth century by American Protestant missionaries. Six factors are identified as significant in this process: (1) the volume of print generated, (2) the massive distribution network for print materials, (3) the pricing strategy for these materials, (4) the establishment and management of modern schools, (5) the role played by the Americans in the process of orthographic standardization of modern Bulgarian, and (6) the creation through regular periodical publications of what Benedict Anderson describes as “unbound seriality”, a necessary component in forming modern national consciousness.
