Minoritarianism

Not to be confused with Majoritarianism.

In political science, minoritarianism (or minorityism) is a neologism for a political structure or process in which a minority group of a population has a certain degree of primacy in that population's decision making, with legislative power or judicial power being held or controlled by a minority group rather than a majority that is representative of the population.

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 is sometimes used to describe rule by a dominant minority such as an ethnic group delineated by religion, language, or some other identifying factor.

Minoritarianism may also be used to describe some 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:

Some people have mistakenly assumed that the higher the vote required to take an action, the greater the protection of the members. Instead the opposite is true. Whenever a vote of more than a majority is required to take an action, control is taken from the majority and given to the minority. ... The higher the vote required, the smaller the minority to which control passes.
—from "The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure" by Alice Sturgis

Dominant minority

See also: 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 1979, 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 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

China

During the Imperial period of Chinese history, China experienced minoritarian rule in two separate instances. The Yuan dynasty was founded by Mongols, and ruled over the majority-Han population of China from 1271 to 1368.

The Qing dynasty took power of China in 1644 and ruled until 1912; this dynasty was formed by Manchus. Han Chinese were forced to assimilate to Manchu customs under the policy of Tifayifu, which demanded the Han people wear Manchu-syle clothing, and adopt the queue hairstyle.

Middle East

Sunni Arabs in Ba'athist Iraq, the Alawite minority in Syria (since 1970 under the rule of the Alawite Assad family), have also been cited as 20th-century and early-21st-century examples.

India

Non Hindu minorities in India have been seen as examples of minoritarianism as the Indian constitution enshrines special rights for religious minorities including cultural and economic rights under Article 30 and 31A that are denied to the Hindu majority. The minority also enjoys exemption from laws of the land like the Right to Education act.

See also

• Client politics
• Criticism of democracy
• Elitism
• Iron law of oligarchy
• Liberum veto
• Majoritarianism (opposite)
• Minority influence
• Minority (philosophy)
• Minority rights
• Oligarchy
• Pseudo-secularism
• Reverse discrimination
• Reverse racism
• Ruling class
• Social privilege
• Tyranny of the majority
• Majority rule

References

• Derbyshire, John (2002-01-29). "Minoritarianism". National Review. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
• Barzilai, Gad. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003). ISBN 978-0-472-03079-8
• 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
• Russell, Margo and Martin. Afrikaners of the Kalahari: White Minority in a Black State ( Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979). ISBN 0-521-21897-7
• 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
• 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
• Haviland, William. Cultural Anthropology. (Vermont: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993). p. 250-252. ISBN 0-15-508550-6.

Further reading

• Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resist It (April 2024) by Ari Berman
• Tyranny of the Minority (2023) by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt