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Adominant minority, also calledelite dominance, is a minority group that has overwhelmingpolitical,economic, orcultural dominance in acountry, despite representing a small fraction of the overall population (ademographicminority). The term is most commonly used to refer to anethnic group that is defined alongracial,national,religious,cultural ortribal 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. At the district level,Election by plurality as opposed to majority is common in self described democracies despite this type of minority rule thereby being frequently produced in the legislative chamber.
Several instances of dominant ethnic minorities exist or did exist in Africa.
InSouth Africa during theapartheid regime, wherewhite South Africans, more specificallyAfrikaners, wielded predominant control of the country, despite never composing more than 22 percent of the population.[1]
African-American-descended nationals inLiberia,white Zimbabweans inRhodesia,[2] and theTutsi inRwanda since the 1990s also have been cited as current or recent examples.[3]
From the invasion of New France in the 1760s and the formation of Canada in 1867 until theQuiet Revolution of the 1960s, theeconomy of Quebec and its high-ranking positions were controlled by theEnglish speaking minority in Quebec, who were always a small minority comprising less than 10% throughout Quebec's post–Royal French Canadian history and who used to be mostlyunilingual English speakers, despite the FrancophoneQuébécois' comprising more than 80% of the province's population.
