On March 28, Jan Rovny (Sciences Po, Paris) will be the guest speaker at the RIGoP Research Group Seminar. The topic will be Ethnic Minorities, Political Competition, and Democracy: Circumstantial Liberals. The session starts at 11 a.m. in Room 2 of ICS-ULisboa and online.

While ethnicity is expected to be a source of particularistic tension, this book takes a theoretical step back, and seeks to answer central questions about the preferences and representation of ethnic minorities. The book demonstrates that permanent minorities search for group preservation by championing liberal rights that would protect them from the tyranny of the majority. This translates into broader ideological preferences and political behavior, inducing the formation of liberal political poles. This dynamic is system forming, and ultimately, the presence of ethnic minorities can be a force for liberal democracy. Simultaneously, ethnic liberalism is circumstantial, as conditional factors cross-pressure the ethnic minority search for rights and liberties, potentially attenuating ethnic liberalism and inducing exclusionary particularism. The book utilizes existing data, and collects new evidence, which it analyses using mixed experimental, quantitative, and qualitative methods.