Dampening the Powder Keg- The Role of Democratic Oppositions in Fostering Ethnic Peace in Post Communist Romania and Slovakia

Democratization in Eastern Europe prompted warnings about the risks of theprocess for the many multi-ethnic countries of the region. Yet the Yugoslavtragedy remains the exception rather than the rule in understanding interethnicrelations. This work analyzes post-communist Romania and Slovakia twomulti-ethnic countries that have steered clear of interethnic violence despitethe absence of institutions specially designed to manage interethnic relationsdespite the exclusion of ethnic minorities from government and despitequasi-majoritarian political environments. In the two studied cases interethnicopposition coalitions resulted from the adoption of basic democratic politicalinstitutions which constrained actors across the ethnic divide to cooperate.More broadly this work questions the notion that multiethnic countriesare unlikely candidates for peaceful democratization and suggests thatas long as participation in democratic processes either in government or inopposition is possible for ethnic minorities violent conflict can be averted.The argument is of interest to both scholars of conflict and peace studies andto policy makers involved in conflict prevention.