UCL Discovery

Abstract

Instrumentalist arguments prioritize the actions of elites in ethnic mobilization, while social structure accounts examine why elite appeals might succeed. Each remains incomplete. In this paper, I present an account of the interactions between elites and masses that drive bilateral ethnic mobilization processes. I use event analysis and scaling to examine tense instances of Hungarian and Romanian ethnic mobilization in Romania in 1990 and 1992, one which turned violent. Two forms of comparison are made possible: a comparison of action trajectories by intensity over time, and a comparison of transactions between actors at different points in time. These transaction patterns serve as the building blocks of contentious processes. The patterns identified here are mass-first mobilization, mass-elite tandem for minorities, and cross-group emulation in mobilization and de-mobilization.