Description
Book SynopsisA quarter century after the formation of the Popular Front and a decade since joining the EU, processes of state- and nation-building in Latvia are still on-going. Issues such as citizenship, language policy, minority rights, democratic legitimacy, economic stability, and security all remain objects of vigorous public discussion. The current situation also reflects longer-standing debates on the relationship between state, nation, and sovereignty in Latvian society and polity. By examining different aspects of these relationships, this volume aims to reveal both key turning points and continuities in Latvia's development, thereby helping to inform current debates.
Trade ReviewThis book is a significant contribution to the scholarly literature on state- and nation-building processes in divided societies in general and in post-Soviet republics in particular. The Latvian case is a lesson to all transitional and multiethnic societies trying to build a strong state and a unified nation. This book is necessary reading for scholars, policymakers and postgraduate students to enhance their understanding of the complex processes associated with state- and nation-building and successful governance. Ohannes Geukjian, American University of Beirut, Europe-Asia Studies, November 2018
Table of ContentsState, Nation & Sovereignty Amidst Uncertainty & Change: Turning Points & Continuities in Latvian Society & Polity; Death & Transfiguration: Reflections on World War I & the Birth of the Latvian State;; Latvians as a Civic Nation: The Interwar Experiment; Why Remember Paul Schiemann?; The Return of the Gods? Authoritarian Culture & Neo-Paganism in Interwar Latvia, 1934-1940; Come on Latvians, Join the Party -- Well Forgive You Everything: Ideological Struggle During the National Communist Affair, Summer 1959; At First We Missed Our Latvia...: Attitudes Towards Latvian State During the Soviet Period; Latvians in Exile & the Idea of the Latvian State; International Reactions to the Independence of the Baltic States: The French Example, 1989-1991; You Are Not the People: Revisiting Citizenship & Geopolitics; Post-Soviet Latvia: A Consolidated Democracy in the Third Decade of Independence?; The Europeanisation of Latvias Public Policy: The Case of Foreign Aid Policy 2004-2010; Paradoxes of Power: Gender, Work, & Family in the New Europe; Reflections on the Political Economy of the Latvian State Since 1991: The Role of External Goals. What to Do Now That Externally Defined Goals Have Been Realised?; The Unbearable Myth of Convergence: Episodes in the Economic Development of Latvia; The Roots of Radicalism: Persistent Problems of Class & Ethnicity in Latvias Politics.
