Circumventing the State: Securing Cultural and Educational Rights for Hungarian Minorities

Abstract

The Hungarian minorities in Romania and Slovakia are embroiled in a struggle over cultural and educational rights, pitting them against the central governments in Bucharest and Bratislava. Both sides clash in an intellectual space devoid of creative thinking; the space is occupied by a premise that the government must define and finance education and cultural institutions. This paper addresses this presumption by exploring the theoretical justifications for removing the state from the process of establishing such institutions for ethnic minorities. The Hungarian case study demonstrates how the character of the state can determine the role, or viability, of alternative social structures. The study concludes that these non-governmental institutions effectively and essentially counterbalance state power, and therefore must be fostered within the confines of the current nominal democracies in Slovakia and Romania.