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Inpolitical science,minoritarianism (orminorityism) is aneologism for apolitical structure or process in which aminority group of a population has a certain degree of primacy in that population'sdecision making,[1][2] withlegislative power orjudicial power being held or controlled by a minority group rather thana majority that is representative of the population. Minoritarianism is sometimes used to describeminority rule, rule by a dominant minority such as an ethnic group delineated by religion, language, or some other identifying factor.
Minoritarianism is most often applied disparagingly to processes in which a minority is able to block legislative changes in the presence ofsupermajority threshold requirements.[citation needed] 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 withveto power (whether as a result of a supermajority requirement orconsensus 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 ofminoritarianism 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 may be used to describe cases where appeasement ofminorities byvotebank politics is practiced. Examples include but are not limited to, Indian Muslims[3] and Francophone Canadians.
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 ofconsensus 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—thatno 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" byAlice Sturgis[4]
Adominant minority, also calledelite dominance, is a minority group that wieldspolitical,economic, orcultural dominance in acountry, despite representing only a subset of the overall population (ademographicminority).[citation needed] Dominant minorities are also known asalien elites if they are recent immigrants.[citation needed]
The term is most commonly used to refer to anethnic group which is defined alongracial,national,religious,cultural ortribal lines and that holds a disproportionate amount of power.
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Christians inSierra Leone are an example of minoritarianism. As of 2020, they make up 21% of its population compared to 78%Muslims.
TheTutsi inRwanda from 1884 to 1959 exerted minoritarian rule over theHutu population. The Tutsi-led[5]Rwandan Patriotic Front has been Rwanda’s ruling political party since 1994.
From 1965 to 1980, the government ofRhodesia (later renamedZimbabwe) 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 was ruled by theapartheid regime from 1948 to 1994, whereinWhite South Africans (especiallyAfrikaners) 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.[6]
InLiberia,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.[7] They formed an elite that ruled as a de facto one-party state under theTrue Whig Party (TWP). The1980 Liberian coup d'état overthrew the TWP administration, ending Americo-Liberian minoritarian rule.[citation needed]
TheMongols killed 15 million Indo-Iranians[8] as theMongols ruled Iran.
TheWhite English ruled India up until 1950 an English King was head of state of the Indians.
China experienced minoritarian periods in two separate instances. TheMongol Empire was founded byMongols and Han governors ruled over the majority of the population of China from 1271 to 1368.[9]
The Qing regime of China in 1682 until 1911 created a law making everbody wear Manchu-syle clothing and styles.[10][11]
During theKuomintang-led authoritarian rule of "White Terror" (1947–1987), Taiwan was ruled by the minorityWaishengren, and the political rights of the majorityBenshengren were restricted.[12]
Sunni Arabs inBa'athist Iraq and theAlawite minority inBa'athist Syria, have also been cited as 20th-century and early-21st-century examples.[citation needed]
Successive KMT governments controlled by the minority Waishengren ruled the island until the late 1980s, even though the Benshengren represented a majority of the population.