The East European gypsies : regime change, marginality, and ethnopolitics

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Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics breaks apart the narrow disciplinary and subfield boundaries that have fragmented the study of both traditional social movements as well as their non-routine politics. By exploring non-institutionalized political actions, including revolutions, democratization, cycles of protest, and ethnic conflicts, the connections between a wide array of political and social phenomena are examined in national, comparative, and global perspectives.This book is the first attempt by a social scientist to explain the age-old predicament of Gypsies (or Roma), Eastern Europe's largest ethnic minority, and their relationship to the region's states and societies. Professor Barany comparatively examines the Gypsies' socioeconomic and political marginality and the policies toward them through seven centuries and in seven East European states. He illuminates the reasons why the Roma have consistently occupied the bottom of social, economic, and political hierarchies regardless of historical period or geographic location.