Ethnic Parties Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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The main object of an ethnic party is to serve the interests of a specific ethnic group; however, the party may not represent all members or every preference. The party may be made up entirely of members of the group, or it may include other individuals who have won the trust of the ethnic group.

Whether ethnic parties emerge, the number of parties that emerge, their relative strength, and their interactions are largely determined by the strength and cohesion of the ethnic groups in a state. Strong ethnic loyalty can create intensely loyal party members, and divisions between ethnic groups may be formalized in ethnic party platforms.

Genesis Of Ethnic Parties

Environmental conditions help deter mine the issues on which ethnic parties focus. These issues and political framing heavily influence ethnic party members. States in which the government distributes public goods disproportionately among ethnic groups may encourage discontent in disadvantaged groups. Furthermore, economic cleavages among ethnic groups, political exclusion, and other social divisions can help establish preconditions for political opportunists to create ethnic parties. When, where, and how ethnic groups mobilize is contingent on political elites’ harnessing such popular discontent and environmental preconditions. Political elites can focus the attention of ethnic groups on the differences between ethnic groups and thereby galvanize support for the party.

Ethnic parties outside of Europe have historically emerged at independence/post colonization to compete for scarce resources or before independence to contest a colonial government. Ethnic groups often formed parties to contest a colonial administration’s social and economic policies as well as to rid a territory of a colonial power. Prior to independence, such political parties often had wide support but few active members. After states won their independence, victorious political parties controlled the government. This sparked debate among other ethnic groups that then sought a stake in the government by developing their own ethnic parties. In many newly independent states, established and dominant politicized ethnic groups helped spur other ethnic groups to politicize and contest for state resources and political space.

Ethnic parties may also be born of internal impulses. An ethnic party may embrace ethnic demands to serve the interest of its constituents. Such a party is identified with the particular concerns of the ethnic group that supports it and may polarize around a narrow set of issues. These parties appeal to ethnic group members by evoking an ethnic identity and represent a broad set of interests under a singular identity. This identity serves as an information tool: in ethnically politicized systems, individuals may not know any more about candidates than their ethnicity. By virtue of a shared ethnicity, constituents may vote for candidates with the assumption that they would better represent and defend constituent interests. Ethnic groups often vote on the basis of this ethnic identity and do not pursue other information about candidates.

Challenges Presented By Ethnic Parties

However, ethnic parties make conciliation among groups difficult. Especially in states with scarce resources, ethnic party elites frequently frame public goods as a zero-sum payoff. In an effort to activate the support of an ethnic group, mobilizers and elites use kinship ties, shared history, or other cultural attributes that may be particular to a specific ethnicity. Indeed, ethnic groups are by nature exclusive: there are definite ethnic insiders and outsiders. Ethnic parties allow for the stronger promotion of narrow group claims, and these claims may have absolute winners and losers. In a government defined by ethnic parties, political cleavages may enforce existing cultural cleavages in society and serve as destabilizing institutions, for example, by encouraging differences through an unwillingness to negotiate and compromise rather than encouraging unity that would produce legislation that would benefit the entire population.

The tendency to organize parties along ethnic lines is strong in deeply divided societies, particularly those in which several major ethnic groups are represented at the national level. Once one party organizes along ethnic lines, other ethnic groups are likely to mobilize. Ethnic elites may realize the potential payoffs from group organization and may be threatened by rival ethnic group mobilization. However, ethnic party systems can emerge contrary to party leaders’ efforts. Party leaders, working for electoral victories, make compromises with different social groups to win a majority or votes for seats. Opportunistic political elites may take advantage of inherent weaknesses in ethnically diverse parties. Within a party, different elites may seize the opportunity to gain power by mobilizing ethnic identities and jockey for position within the party. The ethnically diverse party may then fracture as other party leaders emulate a successful subpart split, resulting in the creation of multiple monotonic parties from a system once characterized by multiethnic parties.

Scholars debate whether ethnic parties within a political system can cooperate, share public goods equally, and act in the interest of the general population. It may be difficult for an ethnic party to pursue policies that benefit people outside the group. Even if political leaders try to diversify the party’s interest, members of the ruling ethnic group may only see state resources going to an ethnic rival. Ethnic group members may obstruct conciliatory political measures.

Conclusion

The adverse effects of ethnic parties can be ameliorated by individuals, parties, and institutions. Individuals and parties build interethnic alliances to win elections and pursue policy changes. A larger ethnic group may ensure a victory by adding voters from smaller ethnic groups, whereas ethnic groups of similar size may ally to challenge a larger ethnic group instead of entering political battles and maintaining their permanent losing status. Institutions can facilitate interethnic allegiances by requiring parties to win elections from multiple electoral districts. Also, some political systems have forms of affirmative action policies guaranteeing an ethnic group some minimum level of state participation.

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