Minorities Overlooked: Group-Based Power-Sharing and the Exclusion-amid-Inclusion Dilemma

International Political Science Review 41(1): 89–107.

Ethnic power‐sharing has been accused of decreasing ethnic inequality in unequal ways: while benefitting larger ethnic minorities, it often tends to overlook the smallest groups. Paradoxically, ethnic micro‐minorities may thus find themselves in even more marginalised positions in power‐sharing regimes than under institutional settings lacking any mandated inclusion. This article tests for the existence of this exclusion‐amid‐inclusion dilemma using a new group‐based dataset that distinguishes between different types of power‐sharing. The findings indicate that this dilemma indeed exists for ethnically based, but not for more liberal types of powersharing, which increase all minorities’ political status in an equal, albeit less strong, manner. The article concludes that adopting one form of power‐sharing or the other means not only prioritising one form of equality over another, but also making a decision with severe political ramifications for the numerically most vulnerable ethnic minority communities.

DOI: 10.1177/0192512119859206

Juon, Andreas. 2020. “Minorities Overlooked: Group-Based Power-Sharing and the Exclusion-amid-Inclusion Dilemma.” International Political Science Review 41(1): 89–107.

@article{minorities-overlooked,
   title = {Minorities Overlooked: {{Group}}-Based Power-Sharing and the Exclusion-amid-Inclusion Dilemma},
   shorttitle = {Minorities Overlooked},
   author = {Juon, Andreas},
   year = {2020},
   month = {January},
   volume = {41},
   pages = {89--107},
   issn = {0192-5121, 1460-373X},
   doi = {10.1177/0192512119859206},
   abstract = {Ethnic power-sharing has been accused of decreasing ethnic inequality in unequal ways: while benefitting larger ethnic minorities, it often tends to overlook the smallest groups. Paradoxically, ethnic micro-minorities may thus find themselves in even more marginalised positions in power-sharing regimes than under institutional settings lacking any mandated inclusion. This article tests for the existence of this exclusion-amid-inclusion dilemma using a new group-based dataset that distinguishes between different types of power-sharing. The findings indicate that this dilemma indeed exists for ethnically based, but not for more liberal types of powersharing, which increase all minorities' political status in an equal, albeit less strong, manner. The article concludes that adopting one form of power-sharing or the other means not only prioritising one form of equality over another, but also making a decision with severe political ramifications for the numerically most vulnerable ethnic minority communities.},
   journal = {International Political Science Review},
   language = {en},
   number = {1},
   status = {personal}
}