Dominant Ethnicity

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Dominant Ethnicity

• From Background to Foreground
• Eric Kaufmann
• Birkbeck College,
• University of London

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Omission in Current Literature

• Nation and dominant ethnie conflated in popular
  mind and in the scholarly literature (i.e. French
  in France Japanese in Japan)
• Parochialism (ethnic as 'other' in US literature)
• nationalism, citizenship, migration, ethnic
  studies, political theory equate ethnic
  minority
• Dominant group is not background, but an active
  sub-national player

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Dominant Ethnicity

• Kymlicka's notion of ethnicity typical
• Ethnic group (primary/secondary) vs nation
• Schermerhorn 1970 - 'dominant majority',
  'dominant minority'
• Smith 1986 - 'core ethnie'. 1991 - 'dominant
  ethnie.'
• Other terms 'staatsvolk', 'host society',
  'charter group', 'herrenvolk democracy', etc.

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Dominant Ethnicity

• Dominant Ethnie remains within nation, though
  often elided by dominant group members
• Not reducible to 'ethno-nationalism'
• Straddle pre-modern period and modern era of
  nations

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Varieties of Dominant Ethnicity

• Majorities or minorities
• Dominance of state or sub-state nation
• Economic, Political, Cultural, Demographic
• Indigenousness (Smith Horowitz) and power
  (Schermerhorn, Doane)
• S. Caribbean cases demonstrate

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The Emergence of Dominant Ethnicity

• West Norms of Cultural liberalism/ Universal
  personhood
• Rise of Far Right
• Developing Countries Collapse of post-colonial
  and Cold War states Norms of self-determination
  Democratisation
• Rise of Ethnic Party Systems (i.e. Africa)

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The Shadowy Nature of Dominant Ethnicity

• Must look not only at state or national elites,
  but at the often informal structures of dominant
  ethnicity
• Dual national-ethnic functions of many elites
  (I.e. Ghana, Singapore, US, Ireland)
• Expansive strategies (power over particularity)
• Restrictive strategies (authenticity over power)

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Dominant Ethnicity in Theoretical Context

• Resurgence and decline in post-modernity
• Role of diaspora (i.e. India Croatia Israel)
• Dominant ideologies do not determine dominant
  ethnicity

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Multiculturalism and Dominant Ethnicity

• Multiculturalism as a left-wing movement is
  problematic without a dominant ethnic group
  against which to define itself
• In a truly plural society with no dominant group
  (i.e. Mauritius, Trinidad), multiculturalism is a
  conservative movement

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Empirical Questions

• Political questions how does group maintain
  power and economic advantage?
• Cultural questions national-ethnic identities
  struggle over symbolic/narrative dominance
  demographic policy

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Normative Questions

• Dominant ethnicity necessary for stable power
  sharing systems? (O' Leary 2001)
• Is the ethnicity of a dominant group worth
  consideration/preservation?
• Can we have a liberal form of dominant ethnicity?
  (i.e. a liberal 'national ethnicity')

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