The Reconstruction of independent states

ENAs Germans and Jews had been eliminated through murder, deportation, or flight during the 1940s, ethnic relations in the Baltic in the post- Communist period (post-1991) have primarily involved interactions among the eponymous peoples, the Russian diaspora, and in Lithuania, the Polish population in the Vilnius region. No significant ethnic violence occurred during the reestablishment of independence. Given this fact, this chapter, in effect, changes the dependent variable. Here, the puzzles involve state policies of the early and mid-1990s. Fear, Hatred, and Resentment still provide the framework for analyzing variation, but here that variation is measured by differences in the formation of institutions. For these cases, emotion may not be as dramatic or intense, but it still motivates action and influences outcomes. The linkage between emotion and individual actions may not be as tight or direct in this chapter as in the sections focusing on violence. However, by expanding the approach, this chapter tests the ability of an emotion-centered explanation to address a wider spectrum of ethnic politics.