Minoritarianism

Concept in depth

Minoritarianism is most often applied disparagingly to processes in which a minority is able to block legislative changes in the presence of supermajority threshold requirements. For example, if a two-thirds majority vote in favor is required to enact a new law, an opposing minority of greater than one-third is said to have "minoritarian" powers.

Even in the case where minority control is nominally limited to blocking the majority with veto power (whether as a result of a supermajority requirement or consensus decision-making), this may result in the situation where the minority retains effective control over the group's agenda and the nature of the proposals submitted to the group, as the majority would be disinclined to propose ideas that they know the minority would veto.

Critics of this use of minoritarianism argue that the ability to block legislation is substantially different from the ability to enact new legislation against the will of the majority, making the analogy to unpopular "dominant minority rule" examples inappropriate.

Minoritarianism may be used to describe cases where appeasement of minorities by votebank politics is practiced. Examples include but are not limited to, Indian Muslims and Francophone Canadians.

In small deliberative groups

Supermajority decision threshold requirements are often found in small deliberative groups where these requirements are sometimes adopted in an attempt to increase protection of varied interests within the group. The requirements may be formally stated or may be unstated (for example, when an organization is described as having a "consensus culture").

A common criticism of consensus decision-making is that it can lead to a situation wherein a minority can block the will of the majority. Consensus advocates argue that this is a good feature—that no action is preferable to one without the consensus support of the group.

Attempts to resolve the dilemma through formal supermajority standards are generally discouraged by parliamentary authorities:

Dominant minority

A dominant minority, also called elite dominance, is a minority group that wields political, economic, or cultural dominance in a country, despite representing only a subset of the overall population (a demographic minority). Dominant minorities are also known as alien elites if they are recent immigrants.

The term is most commonly used to refer to an ethnic group which is defined along racial, national, religious, cultural or tribal lines and that holds a disproportionate amount of power.

Examples of minoritarianism

Africa

Christians in Sierra Leone are an example of minoritarianism. As of 2020, they make up 21% of its population compared to 78% Muslims.

The Tutsi in Rwanda from 1884 to 1959 exerted minoritarian rule over the Hutu population.

Rhodesia

From 1965 to 1980, the government of Rhodesia (later renamed Zimbabwe) was controlled by a white minority. During this period, Black Rhodesians faced institutional discrimination and had limited rights compared to their White counterparts.

South Africa

South Africa was ruled by the apartheid regime from 1948 to 1994, wherein White South Africans (especially Afrikaners) wielded predominant control of the country although they were never more than 22% of the population. All non-white South Africans were subject to segregation and discriminatory laws, resulting in disparities in quality of life.

Liberia

In Liberia, African American-descended nationals (known as Americo-Liberians) settled in Liberia during the 19th century. Americo-Liberians were culturally disconnected from native Liberians, preferring Western-style wear, American food, Protestantism, and the English language. They formed an elite that ruled as a de facto one-party state under the True Whig Party (TWP). The 1980 Liberian coup d'état overthrew the TWP administration, ending Americo-Liberian minoritarian rule.

Asia

Iran

The Mongols killed 15 million Indo-Iranians as the Mongols ruled Iran.

India

The White English ruled India up until 1950 an English King was head of state of the Indians.

China

China experienced minoritarian periods in two separate instances. The Mongol Empire was founded by Mongols and Han governors ruled over the majority of the population of China from 1271 to 1368.

The Qing regime of China in 1682 until 1911 created a law making everbody wear Manchu-syle clothing and styles.

Taiwan

During the Kuomintang-led authoritarian rule of "White Terror" (1947–1987), Taiwan was ruled by the minority Waishengren, and the political rights of the majority Benshengren were restricted.

Americas

United States

Middle East

Sunni Arabs in Ba'athist Iraq and the Alawite minority in Ba'athist Syria, have also been cited as 20th-century and early-21st-century examples.

Notes

References

• {{cite news |first=John |last=Derbyshire |title=Minoritarianism
• Barzilai, Gad. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003).
• Gibson, Richard. African Liberation Movements: Contemporary Struggles against White Minority Rule (Institute of Race Relations: Oxford University Press, London, 1972).
• Russell, Margo and Martin. Afrikaners of the Kalahari: White Minority in a Black State ( Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979).
• Johnson, Howard and Watson, Karl (eds.). The white minority in the Caribbean (Wiener Publishing, Princeton, NJ, 1998). ,
• Chua, Amy. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (Doubleday, New York, 2003).
• Haviland, William. Cultural Anthropology. (Vermont: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993). p. 250-252. .

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