Autonomy à la carte: The creative claiming tactics of the Hungarian minority in Romania

Figures & data

Table 1. Definitions of institutional arrangements.

Institutional arrangement	Definition
Decentralization	Involves a delegation – rather than transfer – of powers, which are mainly administrative (Lapidoth 1997).
Self-government	Either an umbrella term for different institutional arrangements of self-rule or a sub-type of autonomy (Lapidoth 1997; McGarry and Moore 2005; Wolff and Weller 2005; Nootens 2015).
Autonomy	Covers shared-rule and self-rule, with powers of adjudication, administration and legislation (Hannum 1990; Lapidoth 1997; Wolff and Weller 2005).
Cultural Autonomy (CA)	Institutional arrangements which are independent of residency and grant the ethnic minority control over the policy spheres of culture, language, religion and education (Lapidoth 1997; Nimni 2013; Smith 2014a).
Territorial Autonomy (TA)	When ethnically motivated, allows a particular ethnic group that is the majority of a region to express its identity and exercise powers over a range of policy areas linked to culture, economics and social affairs; involves a transfer of powers, often with an elected body (Lapidoth 1997; Smith 2014a).
Federalism	A constitutionally established and generally symmetric arrangement with a bicameral legislature; typically with a supremacy clause at the federal level (Lapidoth 1997; Suksi 2014).
Secession	Achieving full political independence from a state (Lapidoth 1997).
Self-Determination	An ambiguous concept, linked to the right of a people to determine its political status (Lapidoth 1997; Jackson Preece 1998).

Table 2. Preferred word-play discourse by Hungarian minority actors 2014 onwards.

Actor	Preferred terminology	Dominant national claiming strategy
RMDSZ	Autonomy, regionalism, decentralization	Modern autonomist
MPP	Autonomy, regionalism	MP dependent
EMNP/EMNT	Autonomy, regionalism, inner self-determination, federalism	Historic autonomist
SZNT	Autonomy, regionalism, inner self-determination	Historic autonomist

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