This article constructs the first multidimensional, quantitative framework to measure ethnicization among the Matua community in southern Bengal, with broader comparative relevance. Eleven composite indices of identity, political mobilization, cultural practices, historical memory, religious influence, and socioeconomic dynamics were constructed, normalized, weighted, and spatialized using GIS on surveys and secondary data. The final index of ethnicization shows sharp territorial variation, with Gaighata and Bongaon exhibiting high ethnicization driven by strong institutions, whereas heterogeneous constituencies like Sandeshkhali and Hingalganj show low scores, reflecting intensified interparty competition. Findings demonstrate that ethnicization is multidimensional, spatially uneven, and shaped by institutional and political dynamics.
How do narratives regarding Canada's founding nations/peoples differ across provincial citizenship education curricula? We analyze 84 currently active secondary-level curriculum documents (history, social studies, civics/citizenship, grades 5+) from all ten provinces. Using a keyword-guided content analysis, we code five indicators-(1) recognition of three founding nations/peoples, (2) their foundational influence on Canadian identity, (3) the framing of self-government/self-determination (Indigenous; French/Qu & eacute;b & eacute;cois), (4) language protection (Indigenous; French), and (5) whether Indigenous governments are presented as part of Canadian governance-on a four-point scale and convert them to comparative scores. Reading the results through the analytical triad recognition-self-government-self-determination, we identify four accommodation logics: (1) civic-pluralist with reconciliation forward (e.g., PEI, MB, NL), combining broad recognition with positive cues on Indigenous self-determination, language revitalization, and the inclusion of Indigenous governments; (2) equivalence-of-peoples (AB), uniquely pairing Qu & eacute;b & eacute;cois and Indigenous nationalism/self-determination as parallel projects; (3) intercultural-national (QC), centering Qu & eacute;b & eacute;cois nationhood and bracketing pan-Canadian identity; and (4) minimalist civic/skills-based (BC, NB), decentering founding status. Across provinces, Indigenous self-government/self-determination is more often framed positively than French/Qu & eacute;b & eacute;cois claims, which are ambivalent or negative in several jurisdictions. Support for French language protection is uneven, while Indigenous language revitalization is frequently endorsed but unevenly institutionalized.
How do political systems built on power-sharing among politically salient groups accommodate cross-cutting identities, and to what extent do different forms of power-sharing matter? Using Burundi as a case, this paper examines nearly four decades of emergency and consociational power-sharing arrangements and analyzes how regionalism-one of the country's most politically salient cross-cutting identities-has been accommodated within state institutions. The paper shows that political incentives and elite goals shape whether and how regionalism is recognized and institutionally reflected in state institutions. While elites in both emergency and consociational settings use ministerial appointments to consolidate power and mitigate coup risks, rulers operating under consociational frameworks have increasingly relied on regionally based cabinet coalitions to circumvent the very constraints that consociationalism was designed to impose on executive authority. Ultimately, the paper argues that although different modalities of power-sharing vary in institutional design, scope, and outcomes, they rest on a shared underlying logic of regime self-preservation and state capture.
This article explores the ramifications of the war in Ukraine on Serbian politics. Attention is paid to the governing Serbian Progressive Party/SNS and the "broader right" (national conservative, radical, and extreme right) between 2022 and 2025. This study demonstrates that the war granted Serbia's "broader right" a temporary "common ground" but not a long-term opportunity structure against SNS. The nexus of Russophilia in Serbia is not "fixed" but situationally adaptive. It is conditional upon ideology, the patterns of political engagement among heterogeneous actors, and the unpredictable impact of watersheds in domestic politics.
Debates on nationalism and governance in divided societies turn on whether stability is best pursued through centralization or institutionalized power-sharing. Using Afghanistan as a case, this article argues that fragility in deeply divided societies stems less from generic weakness than from centralized state-building that operates as ethnic domination. Tracing the political development from the late nineteenth century through the post-2001 period, it shows how centralization repeatedly marginalized minorities across military, administrative, and symbolic domains. Revisiting the failed-state paradigm, it contends that security-focused diagnoses obscure colonial legacies and domestic power relations. Drawing on consociational theory, the article advances the broader claim that in polities without a stable ethnic majority, decentralized consociational arrangements better support durable rule. Using a qualitative historical-institutionalist approach, the analysis examines the wider relevance of consociational democracy for divided polities.
The article explores the relationship between multilingualism and nationalism in late Ottoman Macedonia. Focusing on the Slavic-speaking population, the study shows how Macedonian intellectuals developed a "two-tier nationhood," combining Bulgarian nationalism with emerging forms of Macedonian political consciousness. The Macedonian liberation movement attempted to mobilize the regional ethnolinguistic diversity and promoted a supranational political project that was radicalized within the programs of the local leftist movements. However, the Macedonian activists largely failed to address adequately the complexities of linguistic plurality. In response, some activists advanced a distinct ethnonational project centered on Macedonian language standardization. The article concludes that Macedonian identity formation followed a non-linear path, challenging conventional models of nation-building and highlighting the importance of multilingualism in shaping modern Balkan identities.
