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Titular nation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The titular nation is the single dominant ethnic group in a particular state, typically after which the state was named. The term was first used by Maurice Barrès in the late 19th century.

Soviet Union

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The notion was used in the Soviet Union to denote nations that give rise to titles of autonomous entities within the union: Soviet republics, autonomous republics, autonomous regions, etc., such as Byelorussian SSR for Belarusians.

For an ethnos to become a Soviet titular nation, it had to satisfy certain criteria in terms of the amount of population and compactness of its settlement. The language of a titular nation was declared an additional (after Russian) official language of the corresponding administrative unit.[citation needed]

China

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The People's Republic of China government has adopted some of the principles behind this Soviet concept in its ethnic minority policy—see Autonomous administrative divisions of China.

Yugoslavia

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The federal republics of Socialist Yugoslavia were perceived as nation-states of the constitutional peoples.[1] After the breakup of Yugoslavia, only Bosnia and Herzegovina was not defined in its constitution as a nation-state of its titular nation.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Stephen Tierney (8 October 2015). Nationalism and Globalisation. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-5099-0206-4.