Ethnic democracy

Ethnic democracy is a political system that combines a structured ethnic dominance with democratic, political and civil rights for all. Both the dominant ethnic group and the minority ethnic groups have citizenship and are able to fully participate in the political process. Ethnic democracy differs from ethnocracy in that elements of it are more purely democratic. It provides the non-core groups with more political participation, influence and improvement of status than ethnocracy supposedly does. Nor is an ethnic democracy a Herrenvolk democracy which is by definition a democracy officially limited to the core ethnic nation only.^[1]

The term "ethnic democracy" was introduced by University of Haifa sociologist Sammy Smooha in a book published in 1989.^[2] He considers Israel to be an example of an ethnic democracy.^[3]

Model definition

Smooha defines eight features that are the core elements of his model of an ethnic democracy:^[4]

1. Ethnic nationalism installs a single core ethnic nation in the state.
2. The state separates membership in the single core ethnic nation from citizenship.
3. The state is owned and ruled by the core ethnic nation.
4. The state mobilises the core ethnic nation.
5. Non-core groups are accorded incomplete individual and collective rights.
6. The state allows non-core groups to conduct parliamentary and extra-parliamentary struggle for change.
7. The state perceives non-core groups as a threat.
8. The state imposes some control on non-core groups.

Smooha also defines ten conditions that can lead to the establishment of an ethnic democracy:^[4]

1. The core ethnic nation constitutes a solid numerical majority.
2. The non-core population constitutes a significant minority.
3. The core ethnic nation has a commitment to democracy.
4. The core ethnic nation is an indigenous group.
5. The non-core groups are immigrant.
6. The non-core group is divided into more than one ethnic group.
7. The core ethnic nation has a sizeable, supportive Diaspora.
8. The homelands of the non-core groups are involved.
9. There is international involvement.
10. Transition from a non-democratic ethnic state has taken place.

Applicability of the model

The model has been applied by researchers to several countries, with various levels of fit.

Latvia and Estonia

There is a spectrum of opinion among authors as to the classification of Latvia and Estonia, spanning from Liberal or Civic Democracy^[5][6] through Ethnic democracy^[7] to Ethnocracy. Will Kymlicka regards Estonia as a civic democracy, stressing the peculiar status of Russian-speakers, stemming from being at once partly transients, partly immigrants and partly natives.^[8] British researcher Neil Melvin concludes that Estonia is moving towards a genuinely pluralist democratic society through its liberalization of citizenship and actively drawing of leaders of the Russian settler communities into the political process.^[9] James Hughes, in the United Nations Development Programme's Development and Transition, contends Latvia and Estonia are cases of ‘ethnic democracy’ where the state has been captured by the titular ethnic group and then used to promote ‘nationalising’ policies and alleged discrimination against Russophone minorities.^[7] (Development and Transition has also published papers disputing Hughes' contentions.) Israeli researchers Oren Yiftachel and As’ad Ghanem consider Estonia as an ethnocracy.^[10][11] 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; it is not a settler society as its core ethnic group is indigenous, nor did it expand territorially or have a diaspora intervening in its internal affairs as in the case of Israel for which Yiftachel originally developed his model.^[12]

However the notion that Estonia or Latvia are ethnic democracies has been rejected by some commentators.^[13] On the one hand, the citizenship laws of these countries are not based on ethnic criteria, treating citizens of Russian extract, including a number of people who automatically became citizens because their families have resided there since before 1940, with the same rights as the ethnic majorities.^[14][15] Moreover, non-citizens enjoy social rights on a par with citizens.^[16] On the other hand, given the proportion of non-citizen minorities without certain political rights (7.5% in the case of Estonia^[17]), Estonia and Latvia may not yet even qualify as ethnic democracies: in Smooha's definition of ethnic democracy, minority groups should enjoy full rights as citizens of the country.^[18]

Malaysia

Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia gives more rights to the Bumiputra than to other people.

Slovakia

Slovak nationalism is grounded in ethnicity and language. "State-building and nation-building in Slovakia are designed to install ethnic Slovaks as the sole nation and to prevent any sign of binationalism. This objective is made clear in the preamble of the Slovak constitution which begins with the following words: “We, the Slovak nation, bearing in mind the political and cultural heritage of our predecessors, the experience gained through centuries of struggle for our national existence and statehood…”^[19]

References

1. Smooha , S. 'The model of ethnic democracy: Israel as a Jewish and democratic state', Nations and Nationalism, p. 475. Volume 8 Issue s4, 2002.
2. Smooha , S. The model of ethnic democracy, European Centre for Minority Issues, ECMI Working Paper # 13, 2001, p24.
3. S Smooha, Ethnic democracy: Israel as an archetype Israel, 1997
4. Priit Järve. Ethnic Democracy and Estonia, European Centre for Minority Issues, ECMI Working Paper # 13, 2000.
5. Pickles, John; Smith, Adrian (1998). Theorising transition: the political economy of post-Communist transformations. Taylor & Francis. p. 284.
6. 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.
7. Discrimination against the Russophone Minority in Estonia and Latvia — synopsis of article published in the Journal of Common Market Studies (November 2005)
8. Kymlicka, Will (2000). "Estonia’s Integration Policies in a Comparative Perspective". Estonia’s Integration Landscape: From Apathy to Harmony. pp. 29–57.
9. Melvin, N. J. (2000). "Post imperial Ethnocracy and the Russophone Minorities of Estonia and Latvia". In Stein, J. P. The Policies of National Minority Participation Post-Communist Europe. State-Building, Democracy and Ethnic Mobilisation. EastWest Institute (EWI). p. 160.
10. Yiftachel, Oren; As’ad Ghanem (August 2004). "Understanding ‘ethnocratic’ regimes: the politics of seizing contested territories". Political Geography 23 (6). doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2004.04.003.
11. Yiftachel, Oren (23 January 2004). "Ethnocratic States and Spaces". United States Institute of Peace. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
12. Smooha , S. The model of ethnic democracy, European Centre for Minority Issues, ECMI Working Paper # 13, 2001, p23.
13. E.g., regarding Latvia: Smith-Sivertsen, Herman (2006). "Latvia — meir enn etnopolitikk" [Latvia: More than Ethnopolitics]. In Bakke, Elisabeth. Sentral-Europa og Baltikum etter 1989 [Central Europe and the Baltic States after 1989] (in Norwegian) (2nd ed.). Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget. p. 63. ISBN 82-521-6786-1. OCLC 162357834.
14. Active Civic Participation of Immigrants in Estonia
15. Amnesty takes on Estonia (reprint)
16. Human Rights and Social Integration in the Republic of Latvia: a General Survey’, Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Latvia's Naturalisation Board, 1998
17. "Estonia Today: Citizenship (Fact Sheet September 2009)" (pdf). 2009-09-02. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
18. Smooha S. and P. Järve, eds., The Fate of Ethnic Democracy in Post-Communist Europe (ECMI, 2005), pp. 61-114.
19. Smooha , S. The model of ethnic democracy, European Centre for Minority Issues, ECMI Working Paper # 13, 2001, pp 64-70.