The papers are based on several research projects in the area of minority participation and inclusion in public life that are currently being developed by the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI), Flensburg, Germany.

The main objective of the papers is to propose different research strategies for analyzing approaches adopted by individual states in order to facilitate the inclusion of ethnic minorities in public life. The proposed research strategies will help to analyze and evaluate different institutional arrangements made by governments in Eastern and South Eastern European states with a high percentage of minority population, in order to encourage the participation of minorities in public life.

In particular, the papers will discuss strategies for analyzing the availability and effectiveness of affirmative actions or other legal provisions ensuring minority participation in the decision-making process and minority inclusion in civil service. They will propose specific empirical indicators for estimating the extent of minority inclusion in civil service and methodologies for analyzing minority perceptions of fairness of minority representation in public life.