SHUSHANIK MAKARYAN WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY DEMOCRACY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT

I propose a cross-national longitudinal study to examine the nature and change in the policies of citizenship and naturalizati

Shushanik Makaryan, Washington State University

Democracy and its Development, CSD, UC Irvine

Citizenship Policies in the 15 Former Soviet Union Republics:

A Quantitative Analysis

(paper proposal)

Abstract

I propose a cross-national longitudinal study to examine the nature and change in citizenship policies in the former 15 Soviet republics since the day of the collapse of the USSR. By addressing neo-institutional interpretations of citizenship (Soysal 1994)^¹ vs. national identity based conceptions of citizenship (Brubaker 1992)^² I analyze under what conditions the newly-independent nation-states of the former Soviet Union are more likely to adopt exclusive vs. inclusive citizenship policies. I employ event history analysis to determine what factors affect the nature and change in citizenship policies that countries-in-transition adopt, and if the change occurs, then in which aspects of citizenship policy the change is more likely to occur.

One of the theoretical contributions is the application and testing of Brubaker’s thesis of “citizenship based on nationhood” in the 20^th century, when the institution of the nation-state is already established and the norms that govern the activities of nation-states are well defined. On the other hand, if neo-institutional trends in citizenship have been supported in Western Europe, and ethnic minorities refer to world human rights to exercise many of their rights formerly granted by citizenship (Soysal 1994), then can we claim the same about newly established 15 former Soviet nation-states, which are still in the process of integrating into world culture?

Methodologically, I contribute to the large qualitative literature on citizenship by proposing a quantitative approach to analyze citizenship laws. I apply time-series data that capture the 1991-2005 time period.

Dataset used in this analysis has been constructed by coding citizenship laws (and amendments) of 15 former Soviet states into dummy and continuous variables.

Biography:

My name is Shushanik Makaryan. I am a forth-year Ph.D. student in Sociology at Washington State University, Pullman. My specialization areas are political sociology and research methods and statistics.

Originally from Armenia, one of the former Soviet republics, I conduct a dissertation research that addresses transition to democracy in the former Soviet block countries and the incorporation of ethnic minorities into these polities. My dissertation focuses on nationalism- citizenship interplay, and how that determines the membership status and naturalization of ethnic migrants in post-soviet societies. The current project focuses on 15 former USSR republics. However, it is my intention in future to extend that to the analysis of other Eastern European post-Soviet states.

Address:

Department of Sociology,

P.O. Box 644020,

Washington State University,

Pullman, 99164, WA, USA

E-mail: [email protected]

Name of Dissertation Advisor:

Gregory Hooks, Professor and Chair, Sociology Department, Washington State University

E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: (509) 335-3687

Current Research Progress:

Research question and hypothesis are formulated; the data collection on citizenship laws and amendments has been completed. The quantitative analysis have not yet been conducted and are about to start.

1 Soysal, Yasemin N. (1994) Limits of Citizenship: Migrants and Post-National Membership in Europe. The University

of Chicago: Chicago and London

2 Brubaker, Rogers (1992). Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts- London, England

Tags: democracy and, to democracy, state, washington, development, democracy, university, makaryan, shushanik