Ethnic Parties: Concepts, Typologies, Identities. The Case of Late Habsburg Galicia and Bukovina

Abstract

The article examines the institutionalization of ethnic parties as conflictual groups within the multiethnic imperial political system of the Habsburg Monarchy. The study is based on a comparative analysis of political parties in Galicia and Bukovina – regions characterized by a high degree of ethnic diversity. The author argues that ethnic parties were not anomalies but rather an organic component of broader processes of political modernization in Central and Eastern Europe. A typology of ethnic parties is proposed, based on ideological and functional criteria. The analysis demonstrates that in the absence of a centralized national state, ethnic identity became a key resource for political mobilization, legitimation, and representation. Two regional patterns of ethnopolitical dynamics are identified: a confrontational-mobilization model in Galicia and a consensus-oriented and accommodationist approach in Bukovina. Both models represented alternative strategies of adaptation by ethnic elites to the imperial political framework. The article concludes that the experience of ethnic party functioning in Galicia and Bukovina at the turn of the twentieth century provides valuable empirical material for analyzing the processes of political mobilization of ethnic groups, models of party-based representation in multiethnic settings, and the mechanisms through which imperial institutions responded to the challenges of nationalization. The study highlights the need for further research into the internal structure of ethnic parties, their coalition behavior, and their relations with civil society. The case of late-Habsburg Galicia and Bukovina should be seen as a significant example for understanding early political modernization in multiethnic societies and for the comparative study of ethnic party politics in post-imperial states.