Authors

Gustav Lundberg¹;  ¹ Södertörn University, Sweden

Discussion

My aim with the paper is to present a comprehensive research design of my forthcoming dissertation which focuses on the relation between ethnicity and parliamentary democracy in general, and within the Latvian political system in particular. The aim of the dissertation will be to generate a theoretical framework that describes the transformation of a political system from being based on material interest (in an economic sense) to being based on perceived ethnicity. In the paper, I propose a model which describes how actors within political systems gradually mobilize along ethnic lines rather than interest-based lines.


The theoretical framework and the model are both underpinned by the theoretical assumptions from researchers and theorists such as Joseph Rothschild (Ethnopolitics, 1974) and Rogers Brubakers (Nationalism Reframed, 1996). I will propose a methodological approach that involves theory building through a qualitative case study of the political development in Latvia. The case of Latvia is chosen due to the highly ethnically polarized political system, in which political parties are increasingly separated along ethnic lines. By this study, I want to answer why and under what circumstances political systems become ethnopolitical systems, as well as explore the consequences of this development.


The paper will thus have a theoretical and methodological focus, and consist of a presentation of a theoretical model, a presentation of the methodological means with which said model will be generated and lastly a description of analyses that will be undertaken in order to do so. It will furthermore argue for the relevance of studying ethnopolitics in general, and the political developments in Latvia in particular.