The (not so) surprising longevity of identity politics: contemporary challenges of the state-society compact in Central Eastern Europe

The article argues that across the East European region ongoing uncertainty about the nature of the state-society compact is central to continuous relevance of “national” in politics. This compact defines who owns the state and who is to benefits from its current form. Since postcommunist nation-state-building was as much about the exclusion of some residents from the political community as it was about limiting states' reliance on thick...