Understanding Ethnic Minority Demands: A New Typology

Abstract

The development of demands advanced by ethnic minorities has received broad coverage in the scholarly literature on divided societies. Current literature offers models that predict a radicalization of minority demands as the result of diverse factors, including modernization processes, discrimination, and a mother country's support for the minority's demands. The present article offers an alternative approach, one that combines the type of minority with the type of regime as fundamental elements that shape a minority's demands. The model presented in this article distinguishes between four situations in which minorities might find themselves: an indigenous minority living in a democratic regime; an immigrant minority living in a democratic regime; an indigenous minority living in an ethnocratic regime, and an immigrant minority living in an ethnocratic regime. The demands that a minority will develop in these different situations range along an axis from radical to moderate and from secession to integration on the basis of equality in a reconstituted state. As part of my analysis, I cite several examples of minority demands across the world.