Abstract: Democratic backsliding can be understood as the removal of alternatives to central control. But where ethnic groups are mobilized into parties, ethnic enclaves can demonstrate the political limits of such central control. This research examined city council politics in ethnic enclaves of the Balkans and Eastern Europe across a 30-year period – in Albanian-majority cities in North Macedonia and Hungarian-majority cities in Serbia, Romania, and Slovakia. The resulting evidence outlines how local political agency might counter central control, and the dynamics of durable versus fleeting political resistance.
Bio: Dr.Sherrill Stroschein is a Reader in Politics (Associate Professor) in the Department of Political Science at University College London, and director of the master’s program on Democracy and Comparative Politics. Her publications examine the politics of ethnicity in democracies with mixed ethnic or religious populations. In addition to journal articles, she has published Ethnic Struggle, Coexistence, and Democratization in Eastern Europe (Cambridge 2012, paperback 2014), and the edited volume Governance in Ethnically Mixed Cities (Routledge 2007, paperback 2016).
Chair: Prof Niheer Dasandi
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Professor of Global Politics and Sustainable Development
International Development Department
Niheer Dasandi is a Birmingham Fellow in Politics and Development. His research broadly looks at the politics of development and international political economy.
