Beyond Compliance: Recognition, Solidarity and Minority Rights in Post-Accession Estonia

• Published in: Nationalism & ethnic politics Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 158 - 180
• Main Author: Sjöstedt, Roxanna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis Ltd 03-04-2018
• Subjects: Accession; Acknowledgment; Compliance; Identity; Identity formation; Implementation; Information dissemination; Internalization; Minority groups; Political Science; Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalization Studies); Rights; Samhällsvetenskap; Social cohesion; Social Sciences; Socialization; Statsvetenskap; Statsvetenskap (exklusive studier av offentlig förvaltning och globaliseringsstudier); Estonia
• ISSN: 1353-7113; 1557-2986
• DOI: 10.1080/13537113.2018.1457830

Implementation of minority rights norms is an important step for integration. The ultimate aim of norm diffusion is internalization, that is, when a norm is being taken for granted. This article seeks to develop an understanding of socialization beyond formal compliance and suggests that material and ideational structures at both the elite and societal levels mutually reinforce one another. The framework is applied to the case of the integration of the Russian minority in Estonia, 1991-2016. The concepts of recognition and solidarity help to theorize and explain this socialization process and the constraints of both materialist and identity dimensions.