ABSTRACT
The experience of new independent states since the disintegration of the Soviet Union has shown that alongside many obvious divergences among them there have been some very prominent similarities. In particular, all of these countries encountered difficulties during the process of democratization. Nation-and state-building in these countries have been characterized by domination of one ethnic and/or cultural group of people and the assimilation of others, by the broad use of “nationalizing” (Linz and Stepan 1996)2 or “pathological” (Rae 2002) politics or even by the incipient “nationalizing” state (Brubaker 1995).3 This article focuses on the relationship between democratization and nation-and statebuilding in post-Soviet countries and the causes of widespread “nationalizing” politics.
