The education of minorities in Bulgaria and Romania : analyzing the formation and articulation of preferences

Abstract

This paper investigates explanations in variation in the education-related preferences of comparable minorities in Bulgaria and Romania (i.e., Turks and Hungarians, respectively) as articulated by political, institutional, and civil society actors claiming to speak on their behalf. The study, which is based on original data extracted from 32 in-depth interviews, begins with a classification of the preferences that the interviewees articulated and the diverse arguments on which these were grounded. Subsequently, I turn to the potential explanations of the observed variation by examining a number of themes that emerged during the discussions and that also correspond to the factors usually considered in the literature on ethnic politics. These include the constraining effect of majority public opinion, the minorities' political representation, and notions related to the opportunities of exit and voice. I argue that actors' preferences adapt to the prevailing circumstances through an incremental process: before higher order preferences can be met or even conceived all the lower steps along the way have to be accounted for.