Trust and cooperation in the public sphere: why Roma people should not be excluded?

• Main Author: Dragoş DRAGOMAN
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editura Institutul European Iasi 2014-05-01
• Series: Polis: Revista de Stiinte Politice
• Online Access: http://www.revistapolis.ro/en/current-issue/235-varia-trust-and-cooperation-in-the-public-sphere-why-roma-people-should-not-be-excluded.html

The recent political developments in Romania and other Central and East European countries, marked by rising populism and political extremism, shed light on the essential issue of building a free, tolerant and inclusive public sphere, which is willing to let arguments to be decisive instead of power, status, race or wealth. The current tendencies of socially excluding Roma, indiscriminately taken by populists for unjustified social burden and intolerable racial difference, are a warning for more radical political action that could undermine on the long-run the effort to set up a democratic public space. Excluding from start an entire minority would only encourage future exclusions based on ideology, ethnicity or religion, according to the narrow definition populists use to give to the concept of ‘people’.