Project

Post Imperial Field of Power in the Second Republic of Poland, Greater Romania and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes After the First World War

Program

Summer Institute for the Study of East Central and Southeastern Europe

Department

Institute for Social Studies

Abstract

Interwar Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia emerged in a new form out of the bygone empires. As a result, they displayed high cultural and institutional variance. They were inhabited by religious or national "minorities," and people previously living in various empires used to different legal realities. Their governments rejected the idea of federation and were reluctant to acknowledge the demands of the national minorities. Various social groups met and debated the emerging polity in legislative assemblies of these reconstructed states. Patchwork Parliaments aims to understand the dynamic interaction between personal, regional and state elements in legislative assemblies in three states composed of parts originating in various empires.