ROMAS POLITICAL MOBILIZATION

Collective identity: The key to achieving a

political mobilization

A concept analysis though the Pareto criterion

By Ramona-Maria Cara
2015

INTRODUCTION
It is indisputable that the Roma have always been left at the margins of the society, from their
arrival until later of the principalities in the modern era. This is mainly due to the lack of ethnic
group organization and lack of effective political participation. Nowadays, it seems that the rest
of the society has or ought to have the moral duty to design effective policies that would assist
the Roma to integrate and efficiently contribute to the growth and development of the Roma's
environment.
The aim of the paper is to analyze the lack of the Roma's political mobilization at the EU level. It
creates a picture of why the Roma requires proper political mobilization at the European scale. It
argues that one of the main factors behind of the political lacking political mobilization is the
absence of collective identity. The Pareto criterion is used in order to prove that the Roma can
successfully be mobilized through collective identity. The Pareto efficiency criterion is defined
as: If it is possible to make at least one person better off in moving from state A to state B
without making anyone else worse off, state B is ranked higher by society than state B'.
(Richard E. Just et al. 204) In consequence, if the Roma will get mobilized through
collective identity, the entire group will be made better off without making anyone in
the group worse off, and this will ensure the Roma's political mobilization.
For a better understanding of why the Roma need to identify their self with a group
and how this can increase the power within that group, I would like to analyze the
Roma's political mobilization through the concept of collective identity using the
Pareto efficiency criterion as a form of measurement. Social Identity Theory suggests
"people strive to achieve and maintain positive social identities associated with their group
memberships" (Tajfel & Turner 1979). The distinction between individual and collective

identity will be made, and it will prove that collective identity if skipping the group
dynamics, can make one more person better off than worst off.
THE FOCUS OF THE ROMA MOVEMENT
In the last decades, there seemed to be a Roma movement, and the European Union
appears to be giving significant interest to the problems that the Roma are facing. However, there
is no political influence and representation when speaking about the Roma, the largest minority
group from Europe.
The Roma movement is focused on advocating on behalf of Roma in the name of human rights,
cultural diversity and social integration, instead of trying to achieve Roma's collective identity
and becoming a social power which will be able to represent itself in political decision making.
According to Zoltan Barany, during the 1990s, even though some Roma organizations have been
able to develop real programs, consistent and pragmatic, the situation improved just by the end
of this decade. By this, it can be understood that the so-called movement is Pareto inefficient. It
is ineffective, for instance, in managing resources such as time, or in taking into account the
emergence of some situations which needed to be solved in a prompt way. The author suggests
that the political programs of the Roma parties are often determined by the aspirations of
individuals (leaders), not their willingness to improve the Roma socio-economic situation.
Therefore, it can be interfered that there is a lack of cohesion between the duties and the
commitment which Roma leaders have to represent. Thus, Pareto is inefficient because the Roma
as a group cannot be made better-off if the leaders are acting based on their self-interest rather
than in the interest of the group.
In order to solve this black gaps within the Roma movement, the traditional leaders of the parties
should be replaced by an elite who would be able to make the Roma as a group better-off rather
than worst-off. Here is where the "Leadership" should come because the Roma political
mobilization as an ethnic group should be centred on the elite and to be led by elite.
The most significant dispute is that traditional leaders and modern leaders. The traditional
leaders are well rooted in the community and have a deep understanding of the grass root

problems. Typically, they receive a minimum formal education but have a great success in
dealing with the Roma. On the other hand, there are the modern activists, called by Barany, the
"new style activists". They are young, dynamic and well-educated (most of them are university
graduates), knowing languages and being focused on more practical goals. Another dispute is
between moderates and radicals. Both fight for Roma rights, but the way they do it is different.
Radical activists are concerned with maintaining Roma issues topic on the agenda of the
governments and media attention. They usually are exaggerating blaming governmental
institutions state of ignoring the problems of the Roma. Moderates are focused on delivering the
compromises and tend to have more success in reaching pragmatic goals and projects. In
consequence, both, traditional leaders, and modern activists although juggling with some of the
Roma's issues they are not able to achieve the mobilization of the Roma as a group. In more than
20 years, neither traditional nor modern activists were capable of unifying the Roma as a single
group and a unique voice because of the lack of collective identity. The Roma movement seems
to have rather dispread the Roma as a group converting it into different target groups and used
the cause of Roma to achieve personal benefits.

DYNAMICS GROUPS AND INDIVIDUAL CHOICES

Social Identity Theory suggests people strive to achieve and maintain positive social identities
associated with their group memberships. (Tajfel & Turner 1979). Dynamic groups are one of
the impediments because the Roma are not mobilized and united as a group. The collective
identity of Roma as a single group, which can lead to a political mobilization, is missing due to
the following: in dynamic groups, individual choices end up creating problems and dividing the
power of the group and, later on, leading to a society with significant gaps. Barany supports the
idea that collective identity is essential when speaking about Roma's participation in the political
life. Many non-Roma perceive the Roma as having a strong collective identity. However, the
Roma rather has a weak collective identity because many Roma refuse to identify themselves
based on their ethnic background site. In addition, the Roma is a very diverse population, very
layered in different groups. Characterized by intro divisions that hinder the creation of a single
affiliation, the Roma identity themselves as belonging to the sub-ethnic groups rather than

belong to the national or international Roma ethnic group. Another problem is the fact that
individuals do not see themselves as being resources that can be used to produce income through
collectivity, in the current case, political mobilization. In addition, individuals are not able to see
the interaction of choices which can bring the equilibrium within the group. If Roma would
understand that one individual choice affects the choices of the other individual and vice versa,
then the Roma would understand that they lack political mobilization. Those are the reasons why
dynamic groups are not able to make one person better off without making one worse off and
that it is Pareto inefficient. Acting as a group, individuals provide goods and services to others
and receive good and services in return. For instance, if Roma provide goods within the
belonging group by being united, one single voice and giving their power to the group, the power
of the group will increase and each will be more powerful through the unity of the group.

WHY IS THE COLLECTIVE IDENTITY THE KEY TO SUCCESS?

Roma can achieve a political mobilization only through realizing their self-interest and building
a collective identity. Through self-interest and collective identity, Roma will be mobilized and
dispread of power caused by dynamics group will disappear.
The sociologists, Taylor and Whittier (1992) argue that without having a collective
identity, a movement cannot emerge. Therefore, even though Roma are advocating on
behalf of the Roma, it is not efficient when speaking about the intent of having a
Roma political mobilization.
One of the determinant factors of Roma's political participation is their ability to
mobilize. Barany believes that political mobilization depends on several factors,
such as ethnic, group cohesion, leadership, and action programs. I consider that
these factors are crucial in order to achieve a mobilization because we can built a
stronger collective identity by dint of the ethnicity, group cohesion, and leadership.
According to the definition given by Charles Tilly, political mobilization means the
process by which groups are organized around an aspect of their identity (such as,

for example, skin color, language, habits in pursuit of a common goal). The political
mobilization denotes a deliberate political activity of a group of individuals in order
to achieve political objectives.
Political mobilization can be divided into three distinct phases. The first stage is the
formation and strengthening of the ethnic identity, ethnic group boundaries
determination vis-a-vis other groups. The second phase is to provide the necessary
prerequisites for political action, such as financial resources, leadership, relationship
with the media, etc. The third stage is the actual political action implemented to
promote the interests of ethnic groups through political participation.
THE CONCEPT OF IDENTITY
Apparently, i d e n t i c a t i o n w i t h a g r o u p i s a n i m p o r t a n t r e a son people get mobilized
and act on behalf of that group. In order to understand why, we must elaborate the identity
concept (David A. et al. 2006). Identity is our understanding of who we are and who other
people are, and reciprocally, other peoples understanding of themselves and others.
For the individual level, members group rely on the distinction made by Tajfel and Tuner (1979),
who argue that a person has one personal identity and other several social identities. Whereby a
personal identity refers to self-identification, who the person is as an individual, the social
identity refers to self-definition in terms of category membership, attributes, and social
identity refers to self denition in terms of social group memberships. The collective
identity is defined by Taylor and Whitter (1992) as the shared definition of a group that derives
from members common interest, experiences, and solidarity.

GIVING VOICE TO THE VOICELESS

Roma political mobilization is important because, on the surface, there is little about the Roma to
suggest a capacity of successful Roma political mobilization. As Barany (2002) writes, "The
Roma's preparation for collective political action is destitute by virtually all criteria of successful
ethnic mobilization". Dispersed over most of Central and Eastern Europe for centuries, there are

few common issues around which the Roma have been able to unite. There has been little
consensus even within Roma communities regarding how their governments can and should
improve their situation (Martin Kovats 2001).

CONCLUSIONS
Our society is composed of individuals motivated by self-interest and rational individual's
preferences. This can be meaningfully aggregated in some aspects to make social decisions about
resource allocation in society (CBA Analysis). When associated with the interest of Roma to
achieve political mobilization, the question is how individual's self-interest and rational
preferences can turn into common self-interest and collective rational preferences?
The way of doing that is skipping the dynamic group which is not Pareto efficient. The common
value, the collective identity, will aggregate individual's preferences giving benefit to the group
and each of that group. Starting from the idea that the Roma are the largest minority in Europe
and the most vulnerable Roma is essential to have a collective identity because thought collective
identity, Roma will achieve political mobilization; individuals will get their interest of
representing themselves, which means that everyone will be made better off. It is important to
highlight that this unity of the group won't produce any negative consequences to any of its
members. No one will be made worse off because if the group gains its power and voice in the
society then the respective group and whole Roma community will gain a social gain. There is no
risk of failure because getting together and becoming a powerful group wont make any person
worse off.

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