 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (February 2022) |
A dominant minority, also called elite dominance, is a minority group that has overwhelming political, economic, or cultural dominance in a country, despite representing a small fraction of the overall population (a demographic minority). The term is most commonly used to refer to an ethnic group that is defined along racial, national, religious, cultural or tribal lines and that holds a disproportionate amount of power and wealth compared to the rest of the population.
In contrast, minority rule, of less permanency and with no basis in race or ethnicity, is often seen when a political party holds a majority in political structures and decisions, but receiving less than the majority of votes in an election. At the district level, Election by plurality as opposed to majority is common in self described democracies despite this type of minority rule thereby being frequently produced in the legislative chamber.
Africa
[edit]Several instances of dominant ethnic minorities exist or did exist in Africa.
In South Africa during the apartheid regime, where white South Africans, more specifically Afrikaners, wielded predominant control of the country, despite never composing more than 22 percent of the population.[1]
African-American-descended nationals in Liberia, white Zimbabweans in Rhodesia,[2] and the Tutsi in Rwanda since the 1990s also have been cited as current or recent examples.[3]
North America
[edit]From the invasion of New France in the 1760s and the formation of Canada in 1867 until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, the economy of Quebec and its high-ranking positions were controlled by the English speaking minority in Quebec, who were always a small minority comprising less than 10% throughout Quebec's post–Royal French Canadian history and who used to be mostly unilingual English speakers, despite the Francophone Québécois' comprising more than 80% of the province's population.
See also
[edit]
- Colonialism
- Elitism
- Herrenvolk democracy
- Middleman minority
- Minoritarianism
- Minority influence
- Model minority
- Neocolonialism
- Tyranny of the majority
- World on Fire, a book that introduces the concept of "market-dominant minority"
- Global majority
Footnotes
[edit]- ^ Mayne, Alan (1999). From Politics Past to Politics Future: An Integrated Analysis of Current and Emergent Paradigms. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-275-96151-0.
- ^ "The 'secretive sect' in charge of Syria". BBC News. 17 May 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
- ^ "Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter". BBC News. 7 April 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
References
[edit]- Barzilai, Gad. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003). ISBN 978-0-472-03079-8
- Chua, Amy. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (Doubleday, New York, 2003). ISBN 0-385-50302-4
- Gibson, Richard. African Liberation Movements: Contemporary Struggles against White Minority Rule (Institute of Race Relations: Oxford University Press, London, 1972). ISBN 0-19-218402-4
- Haviland, William. Cultural Anthropology. (Vermont: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993). p. 250-252. ISBN 0-15-508550-6.
- Johnson, Howard and Watson, Karl (eds.). The White Minority in the Caribbean (Wiener Publishing, Princeton, NJ, 1998). ISBN 976-8123-10-9, ISBN 1-55876-161-6
- Russell, Margo and Martin. Afrikaners of the Kalahari: White Minority in a Black State ( Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979). ISBN 0-521-21897-7