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  1. Home
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  3. Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey
  • Cited by 65
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
December 2014
Print publication year:
2012
Online ISBN:
9781139108898
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139108898
Subjects:
Politics and International Relations, International Relations and International Organisations, Comparative Politics
Series:
Problems of International Politics
Information

Book description

Akturk discusses how the definition of being German, Soviet, Russian and Turkish radically changed at the turn of the twenty-first century. Germany's ethnic citizenship law, the Soviet Union's inscription of ethnic origins in personal identification documents and Turkey's prohibition on the public use of minority languages, all implemented during the early twentieth century, underpinned the definition of nationhood in these countries. Despite many challenges from political and societal actors, these policies did not change for many decades, until around the turn of the twenty-first century, when Russia removed ethnicity from the internal passport, Germany changed its citizenship law and Turkish public television began broadcasting in minority languages. Using a new typology of 'regimes of ethnicity' and a close study of primary documents and numerous interviews, Sener Akturk argues that the coincidence of three key factors – counterelites, new discourses and hegemonic majorities – explains successful change in state policies toward ethnicity.

Awards

Winner of the 2013 Joseph Rothschild Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic Studies, Association for the Study of Nationalities

Reviews

'Regimes of Ethnicity [and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey] provides an important and exciting contribution to the existing literature on ethnicity, minorities, and nationalism … For scholars of nationalism and ethnicity, the book offers a robust theoretical framework for classifying regimes of ethnicity and explaining their persistence and change.'

Yoav H. Duman Source: Comparative Political Studies

'… a must-read for students of ethnicity and nationalism. [This book] is conceptually innovative, empirically rich, and theoretically inspiring. It is particularly timely for the case of Turkey where issues on ethnicity and nationhood are now at the centre of public debates.'

Ahmet T. Kuru Source: Insight Turkey

‘This ambitious work in comparative politics promises a lot and delivers a lot … An impressive feature … is the richly documented, parsimonious account of each of the three countries. The author skilfully parses German, Turkish, and Russian primary sources. The footnotes themselves constitute a wealth of information … Aktürk’s general achievement is to have provoked political science specialists on nationalism and ethnicity with iconoclastic interpretations of recent developments in three major countries. In Turkey and Russia more than in Germany after its landmark citizenship law, state policies on the status and rights of minorities continue to be negotiated in many important ways. His voice seeking to make sense of these ongoing processes is one we need to listen to critically.’

Raymond Taras Source: Perspectives on Politics

'Aktürk’s most significant contribution to studies of recent changes in German citizenship laws is probably his focus on the role played by immigrants, especially Turkish immigrants, in bringing about those changes … One must recognize Aktürk’s extraordinary skills, not least linguistic, and the care he has taken, through extensive interviews and research in primary and secondary sources, to cast light on a central question of the modern age.'

Eli Nathans Source: American Historical Review

'Empirically, Aktürk’s book is impressive. He does well at combining historical narratives from three different area-studies traditions and drawing comparisons between countries endowed with different constitutional arrangements.'

Source: Survival: Global Politics and Strategy

'Based on the data gathered from archival materials, interviews, newspapers, and electoral statistics, Aktürk provides a theoretically original, empirically deep, and methodologically strong argument on persistence and change in the regimes of ethnicity … One of the innovative approaches in [this book] is the intuitive blend of historical institutionalism - mostly associated with the studies of welfare regimes - and the studies of ethnicity and nationalism. Through this insightful combination, Aktürk also shows the endogenous dynamics of institutional change without any presence of exogenous shock that many new institutionalists refer to.'

Serhun Al Source: National Identities

'… provides an in-depth explanation of ethnicity policy reform in Germany, Russia and Turkey … empirically well grounded and makes novel and useful contributions to the field that should guide future scholarship.'

Alexander Caviedes Source: German Politics

'… a well-conceived and well-tested study … recommended to scholars interested in citizenship studies [and] institutionalists as well as to sociologists as a fine read.'

Nur Bilge Criss Source: Turkish Studies

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