The subject of this study by Judith Kelley is the international factor in ethnic minority politics—the role of external institutions and norms in the democratic development of several countries and the policies regarding their ethnic minorities. These institutions, more specifically the European Union, the Council of Europe (CE), and the European Security Conference, have secured commitments and undertakings from national governments regarding human rights in general and the protection of minority groups in particular. This is especially true of the CE, which has admitted a number of states on the basis of promises only.

The influence of these institutions is exerted via incentives, such as admission to membership in the EU, and pressures, such as the delay in 2000 in processing the application of Slovakia for such membership. Both may be based on “conditionalities” as articulated, for example, in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Like many recent studies on the linkage between international and domestic politics, this book makes a strong case for the efficacy of third-party involvement in ethnic problems and is clearly informed by the rational choice approach.

Kelley posits several hypotheses regarding institutional engagement, and she argues 1) that the domestic policies of countries toward their ethnic minorities are influenced by the EU and the CE via membership conditionality and normative pressures; 2) that membership enticement has been particularly effective and has generated less opposition than have normative pressures; and 3) that policy outcomes are more compatible with international norms than with the preferences of the dominant domestic actors. She makes it clear that cost-benefit incentives in the cases examined here relate to politics rather than economics, which explains why there is no discussion of investments and only cursory mention of the World Trade Organization and the World Bank.

Kelley does not come to a categorical conclusion about the relative weights of “carrots” and “sticks.” She is aware of the fact that the impact of incentives depends on the assumptions by the government in question about the capacities of the international actors and the seriousness of their promises and threats. She argues that “conditionality will only work if the cost-benefit calculations come out in favor of a policy change” (p. 40). In other words, incentives work only if the anticipated payoff is convincing—which in turn is a function of the credibility of the international organization offering the incentives. Moreover, these incentives work only if domestic support is sufficient and internal political resistance is weak.

The book title is somewhat misleading, because the focus is not on “Europe” but on selected ex-communist countries in East-Central Europe, specifically Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, and Romania. These four countries reflect a certain symmetry: The first two contain significant Russophone minorities, and the second two, important Magyar communities, all face “beached” diasporas—minorities whose ethnonational brethren constitute majorities in neighboring countries. In all of them, factors have converged in a way not seen elsewhere: International organizations have been interested in appealing to them; membership in the EU has been offered to them; international norms have been, by and large, positively received; and incentives have worked reasonably well. Their experience with communist regimes has made them more receptive to democratic norms than has been true elsewhere, for example, most of the Middle East and Africa. It would be interesting to speculate to what extent the findings in this study apply to other former communist countries, such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, where discrimination against the Roma persists; Belarus, which continues to be Stalinist; and former Yugoslavia, where the impact of international organizations has been uneven and controversial. Even in the countries examined in detail, the political parties opposed to extended minority rights are strongly represented in parliament and are part of the governing majority. This may suggest that once a country has eaten the carrot, that is, has been accepted as a member of the EU and the CE, the incentive is no longer relevant and the norms are less strongly adhered to.

The book provides summaries of the postcommunist domestic politics of the countries dealt with, in particular their ethnic minority situations, and an analysis of the role played by language in determining voting rights and entitlement to welfare state benefits. It contains a number of tables, including a catalog of institutional mechanisms associated with normative pressures and a list of laws and policies adopted during a ten-year period regarding ethnic minorities and, presumably, responding to international pressures and norms, as well as the degree of opposition to them. The laws and legislative process on education, language, electoral participation, and citizenship are examined in detail. In doing this, Kelley is aware that there is a lag between legislative enactment and implementation, either because of deliberate foot dragging or because “the state does not have the capacity to enforce [a] policy for some years” (p. 57).

Kelley acknowledges the limitations of her study. To be sure, “ethnic issues have had high priority on the international agenda,” but “international institutions could not and did not get involved in every ethnic issue, nor did they have the political will to engage equally in all countries” (p. 5). This statement applies a fortiori outside East-Central Europe, if one considers the international indifference to events in Chechnya, Tibet, Rwanda, and Georgia. In fact, the author introduces some uncertainty about the extent to which her findings can be generalized, and she admits that “few comparative studies systematically evaluate the effectiveness of [the international organizations'] efforts toward persuasion in terms of achieving policy goals” (p. 9).

Ethnic Politics in Europe is empirically based, well-documented, and competently crafted, and it devotes a good deal of space to laying out the analytic approach, research design, and theoretical underpinnings. More than a third of the book is devoted to the introduction, theory, and methodology. It contains a plethora of notes, a good bibliography, and a useful index. There is no doubt that it is a significant contribution to the literature on the management of ethnic conflict.