EU Accession, NGOs, and Human Rights: Discrimination Against the Roma in Slovenia and Croatia

This paper measures discrimination against the Roma (commonly known by the disfavored term "Gypsies") to test the ground level efficacy of two strategies of human rights improvement: top-down diffusion and bottom-up change. The study spans three towns, Murska Sobota and Novo mesto in Slovenia and Cakovec in Croatia, and includes over 600 subjects. Levels of discrimination were estimated via trust games played with money, which are particularly appropriate because the Roma are widely stereotyped as cheaters and thieves. The findings suggest that the EU accession process, widely regarded as an exceptionally strong incentive-based mechanism of rights diffusion, does not severely reduce discrimination on the ground. Instead, they suggest that ground level organizing aimed at improving relations between Roma and non-Roma helps reduce discrimination.