Ethnocracy
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An ethnocracy is a type of political structure in which the
An ethnocratic society facilitates the ethnicization of the state by the dominant group, through the expansion of control likely accompanied by conflict with minorities or neighbouring states. A theory of ethnocratic regimes was developed by critical geographer Oren Yiftachel during the 1990s and later developed by a range of international scholars.
Characteristics, structure, and dynamics
In the 20th century, a few states passed (or attempted to pass) nationality laws through efforts that share certain similarities. All took place in countries with at least one national minority that sought full equality in the state or in a territory that had become part of the state and in which it had lived for generations. Nationality laws were passed in societies that felt threatened by these minorities' aspirations of integration and demands for equality, resulting in regimes that turned xenophobia into major tropes. These laws were grounded in one ethnic identity, defined in contrast to the identity of the other, leading to persecution of and codified discrimination against minorities.[2]
Research shows that several spheres of control are vital for ethnocratic regimes, including of the armed forces, police, land administration, immigration and economic development. These powerful government instruments may ensure domination by the leading ethnic groups and the stratification of society into 'ethnoclasses' (exacerbated by 20th century capitalism's typically neo-liberal policies). Ethnocracies often manage to contain ethnic conflict in the short term by effective control over minorities and by effectively using the 'thin' procedural democratic façade. However, they tend to become unstable in the longer term, suffering from repeated conflict and crisis, which are resolved by either substantive democratization, partition, or regime devolution into consociational arrangements. Alternatively, ethnocracies that do not resolve their internal conflict may deteriorate into periods of long-term internal strife and the institutionalization of structural discrimination (such as apartheid).
In ethnocratic states, the government is typically representative of a particular ethnic group, which holds a disproportionately large number of posts. The dominant
Ethnocracies are characterized by their control system – the legal, institutional, and physical instruments of power deemed necessary to secure ethnic dominance. The degree of system discrimination will tend to vary greatly from case to case and from situation to situation. If the dominant group (whose interests the system is meant to serve and whose identity it is meant to represent) constitutes a small minority (typically 20% or less) of the population within the state territory, substantial institutionalized suppression will probably be necessary to sustain its control.
Means of avoiding ethnocracy
One view is that the most effective means of eliminating ethnic discrimination vary depending on the specific situation. In the Caribbean, a "rainbow nationalism" type of non-ethnic, inclusive civic nationalism has been developed as a way to eliminate ethnic power hierarchies over time. (Although Creole peoples are central in the Caribbean, Eric Kauffman warns against conflating the presence of a dominant ethnicity in such countries with ethnic nationalism.[8])
Andreas Wimmler notes that a non-ethnic federal system without minority rights has helped
Mono-ethnocracy vs. poly-ethnocracy
In October 2012, Lise Morjé Howard[11] introduced the terms mono-ethnocracy and poly-ethnocracy. Mono-ethnocracy is a type of regime where one ethnic group dominates, which conforms with the traditional understanding of ethnocracy. Poly-ethnocracy is a type of regime where more than one ethnic group governs the state. Both mono- and poly-ethnocracy are types of ethnocracy. Ethnocracy is founded on the assumptions that ethnic groups are primordial, ethnicity is the basis of political identity, and citizens rarely sustain multiple ethnic identities.[citation needed]
Ethnocracies around the world
Belgium
Lise Morjé Howard[11] has labeled Belgium as both a poly-ethnocracy and a democracy. Citizens in Belgium exercise political rights found in democracies, such as voting and free speech. However, Belgian politics is increasingly defined by ethnic divisions between the Flemish and Francophone communities. For example, all the major political parties are formed around either a Flemish or Francophone identity. Furthermore, bilingual education has disappeared from most Francophone schools.[citation needed]
Malaysia
Malaysia has been labeled as a pro-
Israel
Israel has been labeled an ethnocracy by scholars such as Alexander Kedar,[14] Shlomo Sand,[15] Oren Yiftachel,[16] Asaad Ghanem,[17][18] Haim Yakobi,[19] Nur Masalha[20] and Hannah Naveh.[21] It is also viewed as an apartheid state by various organisations, including B'tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, due to actions committed against Palestinians that they see as emblematic of such a state.[22][23][24]
However, scholars such as Gershon Shafir, Yoav Peled and Sammy Smooha prefer the term ethnic democracy to describe Israel,[25] which is intended[26] to represent a "middle ground" between an ethnocracy and a liberal democracy. Smooha in particular argues that ethnocratic democracies, allowing a privileged status to a dominant ethnic majority while ensuring that all individuals have equal rights, are defensible. His opponents reply that insofar as Israel contravenes equality in practice, the term 'democratic' in his equation is flawed.[27]
In 2018, Israel passed the Nation-State Bill which declared that "The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people." The law also removed the official status of Arabic, with Hebrew remaining the sole official language of Israel.
Latvia and Estonia
There is a spectrum of opinion among authors as to the classification of Latvia and Estonia, spanning from liberal democracy[28][29] through ethnic democracy[30] to ethnocracy. Will Kymlicka regards Estonia as a democracy, stressing the peculiar status of Russian-speakers as stemming from being at once partly transients, partly immigrants and partly natives.[31]
British researcher
Israeli researchers Oren Yiftachel and As'ad Ghanem consider Estonia as an ethnocracy.[33][34] Israeli sociologist Sammy Smooha, of the University of Haifa, disagrees with Yiftachel, contending that the ethnocratic model developed by Yiftachel does not fit the case of Latvia and Estonia: they are not settler societies as their core ethnic groups are indigenous, nor did they expand territorially, nor have diasporas intervening in their internal affairs (as in the case of Israel for which Yiftachel originally developed his model).[35]
Northern Ireland
Rwanda
According to academic Alana Tiemessen in 2004, Rwanda's president
South Africa
Until 1994,
- majoritarian(one man, one vote)
- non-democratic (varieties of white domination)
- partitionist (creating new political entities)
- consociational(power-sharing by proportional representation and elite accommodation)
These illustrate the idea that state power can be distributed along two dimensions: legal-institutional and territorial. Along the legal-institutional dimension are singularism (power centralised according to membership in a specific group), pluralism (power distribution among defined groups according to relative numerical strength), and universalism (power distribution without any group-specific qualifications). On the territorial dimension are the unitary state, "intermediate restructuring" (within one formal sovereignty), and partition (creating separate political entities). Lijphart had argued strongly in favour of the consociational model.
Turkey
Uganda
See also
- Dominant minority
- Ethnic nationalism
- Herrenvolk democracy
- Human rights in Estonia
- Ketuanan Melayu
- Nationalism
- South Africa under apartheid
- Superstratum
- White separatism
- White nationalism
- Monoethnicity
References
- . Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- ^ Blatman, Daniel (27 November 2014). "The 'Nation-state' Bill: Jews Should Know Exactly Where It Leads". Haaretz. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- ^ Yiftachel, O (1997). "Israeli Society and Jewish-Palestinian Reconciliation: Ethnocracy and Its Territorial Contradictions". Middle East Journal. 51 (4): 505–519.
- .
- .
- ^ Yiftachel, O. (2006) Ethnocracy: Land, and the Politics of Identity Israel/Palestine (PennPress)
- ISBN 9781452085470, p. 99, item 20 View on Google Books
- .
- S2CID 143689399.
- ^ Telles, Edward E. (2004). Race in another America : the significance of skin color in Brazil.
- ^ S2CID 145795576.
- ^ Chew, Amy. "Malaysia's dangerous racial and religious trajectory". Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-415-92446-7.
- ISBN 978-0754623519.
- ^ Strenger, Carlo (27 November 2009). "Shlomo Sand's 'The Invention of the Jewish People' Is a Success for Israel". Haaretz. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
- ISBN 978-0812239270.
- ISBN 978-0521157025.
It can be defined as an ethnocratic state [...]," writes Asaad Ghanem in the Future Vision Document
- JSTOR 41804965.
- ISBN 978-0739107416.
- ISBN 978-1842777619.
- ISBN 978-0853035053.
- ^ "Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution". Human Rights Watch. April 27, 2021.
- ^ "A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid". B'Tselem. January 12, 2021.
- ^ "Israel's apartheid against Palestinians". Amnesty International. 2022-02-01. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
- ^ Uri Ram, Nationalism: Social conflicts and the politics of knowledge, Taylor & Francis, 2010 pp.63-67.
- ^ Michael Galchinsky, Jews and Human Rights: Dancing at Three Weddings, Rowman & Littlefield, 2008 p.144
- ^ Katie Attwell, Israeli National Identity and Dissidence: The Contradictions of Zionism and Resistance, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 p.26.
- ^ Pickles, John; Smith, Adrian (1998). Theorising transition: the political economy of post-Communist transformations. Taylor & Francis. p. 284.
- ^ Jubulis, M. (2001). "Nationalism and Democratic Transition". The Politics of Citizenship and Language in Post-Soviet Latvia. Lanham, New York and Oxford: University Press of America. pp. 201–208.
- ^ a b Discrimination against the Russophone Minority in Estonia and Latvia Archived 2008-05-04 at the Wayback Machine — synopsis of article published in the Journal of Common Market Studies (November 2005)
- ^ Kymlicka, Will (2000). "Estonia's Integration Policies in a Comparative Perspective". Estonia's Integration Landscape: From Apathy to Harmony. pp. 29–57.
- ^ Melvin, N.J. (2000). "Post imperial Ethnocracy and the Russophone Minorities of Estonia and Latvia". In Stein, J.P. (ed.). The Policies of National Minority Participation Post-Communist Europe. State-Building, Democracy and Ethnic Mobilisation. EastWest Institute. p. 160.
- .
- ^ Yiftachel, Oren (23 January 2004). "Ethnocratic States and Spaces". United States Institute of Peace. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
- ^ Smooha, S. The model of ethnic democracy Archived June 2, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, European Centre for Minority Issues, ECMI Working Paper # 13, 2001, p23.
- ^ Pullan, Wendy (2013). Locating Urban Conflicts: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Everyday. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 208–209.
- ^ Shuttleworth, Ian (2015). Social-Spatial Segregation: Concepts, Processes and Outcomes. Policy Press. pp. 201–202.
- ^ Tiemessen, Alana Erin (2004). "After Arusha: Gacaca Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda". 8 (1): 66.
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(help) - ^ Walsh, Declan (2024-04-06). "From the Horror to the Envy of Africa: Rwanda's Leader Holds Tight Grip". The New York Times.
- ISBN 978-0-299-29143-3.
- ISBN 0-87725-524-5.
- ^ Azgın, Bilge (2012). The Uneasy Democratization of Turkey's Laic-Ethnocracy (PhD). University of Manchester.
- ISSN 2159-0370.
An "ethnocratic state," according to Ghanem is one that is controlled by one ethnic group and that operates in the interests of that dominant ethnic group. Other states that Ghanem labels ethnocratic states are Turkey, Sri Lanka, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
- ^ Fong, Jack (2008). Revolution as Development: The Karen Self-Determination Struggle Against Ethnocracy (1949- 2004). Universal-Publishers. p. 81.
- JSTOR 217352.