LGI / Ethnic / Bibliography

No 3	Force, Ideology, and Contract: The History of Ethnic Conscription
Institution	Center for International Affairs; Harvard University: Cambridge, MA 02138
Publication (Journal)	Ethnic and Racial Studies 17 no. 1 (January 1994): 61-78
Published in	U.K., 1994
Language	English
Abstract	Minority groups in Central Asia, the Baltic republics, Eastern Europe, and Africa find themselves trapped between their loyalty to their new states and their cultural and blood-ties with kin across the borders of potentially hostile countries. This ethnic dilemma is complicated by the enactment of conscription in many of these new states. Here, it is examined how governments in polyethnic states have conscripted minority groups throughout history: by force, ideology, and contract. It is argued that ethnic youth have traditionally complied with the draft call for three reasons: fear, ideological conviction, and expectation of civic benefits. Polyethnic military organizations that rely exclusively or principally on coercion, ideology, or ethnic contracts differ from each other in terms of the power of the government vis-a-vis ethnic groups, the political U.K. and military circumstances for which they are best suited, and their advantages and drawbacks. "Conscription by contract" is highlighted as an effective model to appease militant minority groups and to accommodate their special needs in new polyethnic states.
Availability	Szabo Ervin Library, Budapest
Discipline(s)	political sociology
Source(s)

LGI / Ethnic / Bibliography