dominant minority
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{{Short description|Minority group that holds a disproportionate amount of power}}
{{other uses|Minority (disambiguation)}}
A dominant minority, also called elite dominance, is a minority group that has overwhelming political, economic, or cultural dominance in a country, despite representing a small fraction of the overall population (a demographic minority). The term is most commonly used to refer to an ethnic group that is defined along racial, national, religious, cultural or tribal lines and that holds a disproportionate amount of power and wealth compared to the rest of the population.
In contrast, minority rule, of less permanency and with no basis in race or ethnicity, is often seen when a political party holds a majority in political structures and decisions, but receiving less than the majority of votes in an election.
Africa
A notable example is that of South Africa during the apartheid regime, where white South Africans, more specifically Afrikaners, wielded predominant control of the country, despite never composing more than 22 percent of the population.{{cite book|last=Mayne|first=Alan|title=From Politics Past to Politics Future: An Integrated Analysis of Current and Emergent Paradigms|date=1999|page=52|publisher=Praeger|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=978-0-275-96151-0}} African-American-descended nationals in Liberia, white Zimbabweans in Rhodesia,{{Cite news |date=2012-05-17 |title=The 'secretive sect' in charge of Syria |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-18084964 |access-date=2023-09-23}} and the Tutsi in Rwanda since the 1990s also have been cited as current or recent examples.{{Cite news |date=2014-04-07 |title=Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26875506 |access-date=2023-09-23}}
See also
{{portal|Politics}}
{{div col}}
- Colonialism
- exploitation colonialism
- plantation colonies
- settler colonialism
- Elitism
- Herrenvolk democracy
- Middleman minority
- Minoritarianism
- Minority influence
- Model minority
- Neocolonialism
- Pseudo-secularism
- Tyranny of the majority
- World on Fire, a book that introduces the concept of "market-dominant minority"
- Global majority
{{div col end}}
Footnotes
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References
- Barzilai, Gad. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003). {{ISBN|978-0-472-03079-8}}
- 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}}
- 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}}
- Haviland, William. Cultural Anthropology. (Vermont: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993). p. 250-252. {{ISBN|0-15-508550-6}}.
- 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}}
- Russell, Margo and Martin. Afrikaners of the Kalahari: White Minority in a Black State ( Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979). {{ISBN|0-521-21897-7}}
{{Ethnicity}}
Category:Ethnicity in politics