Twenty years post-independence: the relevance of ethnic democracy and control theories in understanding contemporary Latvia

Abstract

This thesis applies the model of ethnic democracy and control theory to Latvia with a view to better understanding the divergence in ethnic perceptions in contemporary Latvia. I will argue that the early processes of ethnic state-building sought to promote the culture, history and political right of the ethnic Latvian people to the Latvian territory at the expense of other ethnicities in independence era society via mechanisms of control, and in turn this has contributed to the shaping of how the respective ethnicities view their nation state today. Contextualising recent survey data which questions these perceptions, I will outline how these theories can explain how this divergence in different members of each ethnicity has emerged and offer insight as to how and why the ethnic differences are slowly crumbling in the minority ethnic youth, and in which areas lies promise for building a more united nation.