Ethnic politics

""To discuss the state of civil society, the 10 articles in Ethnic Activism and Civil Society in South Asia present case studies of different kinds of ethnic ('communal') activism in South Asia covering countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India-with Darjeeling, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu, in particular. The articles examine Hindu nationalism, Dalit activism in India, Janajati movement in Nepal, and the transnational connections among them, and discuss common ideals such as emphasis on the involvement of youth, assertion of pride and masculinity, desire to resist injustice, importance of land and belonging, and so on.

The South Asian civil society is a site of constant struggle. In this volume, the focus is not on one nation and the 'methodological nationalism' in the region but on all South Asian nations. It shows how the ethnic activists wrestle with official classifications and categories of daily, traditional practices and attempt to turn them to their advantage. It also argues for the treatment of the differing categories of ethnic movements together, which are otherwise generally treated in isolation.
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Recent evidence suggests that ethnicity and ethnic attitudes play an important role in determining voters’ electoral preferences in the Andes. Popular discourses surrounding recent electoral campaigns have often been explicitly racial, and candidates have framed their political projects, and their own socio-political identities, in ethnic (or at least ‘ethnicisized’) terms. Additionally, analysis of survey data shows voters often prefer candidates of the same, or a related or ‘proximate’, ethnic group. Despite the growing evidence for ethnic voting in the region, however, scholarship has not examined precisely how and under what conditions ethnicity and ethnic attitudes influence voters’ choices at the ballot box. In order to peek inside this ‘black box’ of voter decision-making, this paper assesses data from a computer-based election simulation carried out in Peru, where participants gathered and evaluated information about hypothetical candidates in a simulated presidential campaign. Analysis of LAPOP public opinion surveys complements the simulation data. By examining how voters in Peru use ethnic information in their electoral decision-making, this paper offers insights into the causal processes that underlie ethnic voting, processes that are, in turn, fundamental to our broader understanding of electoral politics in the Andes.

Авторы статей: Васильева Ольга, Воронцов Владимир, Габдрафиков Ильдар, Демина Александра, Жеребцов Игорь, Котылев Александр, Матвеев Георгий, Мартыненко Александр, Миронова Наталья, Садохин Александр, Соколовский Сергей, Сурво Арно, Сурво Вера, Терюков Александр, Цыпанов Евгений, Шабаев Юрий, Шабаева Наталья, Шарапов Валерий, Шаров Владимир, Шилов Николай, Леэте Арт, Хузангай Атнер.

"Sokolovskiy, Sergey. NATIONAL MINORITIES IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA

The author comments on an array of discourses, operative at the intersection of minority identity politics, state policy of ethnic groups recognition and academic population categorization in post-Soviet Russia. The Russian approach to the problems of minorities identification and definition of the concept is outlined on the background of international law. As the Russian legislation lacks minority definition, it is suggested to look at international legal norms implementation in the sphere of minority rights as a clue to pragmatics of minorities identification in this country."

This article explores how Herman Cain successfully used his own race, anti-Black bigotry and social conservatism to leverage the wide-spread, race-based hatred of Obama among Conservatives and catapult his political rise. By so doing he also successfully bypassed the racial backlash that might be expected among Southern White Conservatives outraged over a Black man having extra-marital affairs with White women.

""The purpose of this inquiry was to investigate the role, experiences and perceptions of popular educators actively involved in civil society, non-governmental organizations, and social movements to bring about social transformation. This research answered questions regarding the causes of the conflict, the learning experiences of popular educators, and their educational strategies.

Conflict perspective guides this research. This study filled the gap in the research by including the voices of popular educators regarding their actions that promote just peace. In this inductive study, the data collection methods include participant observation, interviews and self-report, focus groups, artifacts, and archival document analysis. For its data analysis, this research used open coding from which themes emerged and a grounded theory was generated, which shed new light upon the phenomenon.

Data analysis reveals that there are historical and social problems that lead to conflict, dissent, repression, and armed hostilities. Using a human rights-based social change framework that promotes social justice, popular educators working at the grassroots level promote sustainable peace. Examples of such activities include advocacy, development work, relief work for survivors of human rights violations and armed conflict, welfare, and volunteer community service, such as interfaith sports and dance activities and environmental protection. These activities promote social justice, human rights, inter-ethnic and interfaith understanding, environmental concern, and the cessation of the culture of war.

These findings have implications for policy, research and practitioners. Funding agencies may consider providing more assistance to civil-society projects that promote social justice. As practitioners, popular educators must not focus on abstract concepts. Rather, they must continue to respond to actually existing contexts grounded on the historical, economic, political, and cultural situations and needs. The Ty spiral development model grounded on the data will be useful for policy makers, academicians, and practitioners when they conduct social analysis with a view to engage in concrete actions that promote social transformation. This research argues that ordinary people working at the grassroots level matter, as they are the ones who struggle against injustice to bring about positive social change.""

"Pakistan’s federal structures have been the subject of controversy since independence. Longstanding demands for change have been made, particularly changes to the vertical and horizontal division of resources and demands for a reorganization of provinces along ethno-linguistic lines.
The 18th Constitutional Amendment of 2010 introduced major changes to the federal system, agreed by consensus. But have these changes gone far enough? This article analyses the changes that were made, engaging with debates concerning the wisdom of creating ethnofederal units, dividing core groups, as well as the optimal number of units. It concludes that while major changes have been made, they have not yet gone far enough. The diversity of Pakistan should be seen as a source of federal strength rather than as a weakness."

"Abstract
Iran is facing a serious domestic challenge. Non-Persian ethnic minorities are mobilizing to claim their rights under an Islamic Republic, which minority activists claim is systematically neglecting and discriminating against them. Yet contemporary Iranian ethnic politics is severely understudied and media coverage rarely engages with it. This article explores the ways in which ethnicity play into Iranian domestic politics in subtle, intricate and highly important ways. For this purpose, it focuses on how the interconnected factors of ethnicity, regionalism and tribalism figured in the 2013 combined presidential and local council elections in Iran in a particular province that has a history of ethnic tensions. Incidentally, these elections brought Hassan Rouhani, a moderate cleric, to power as president. Amongst his electoral promises was to end the securitization of the minority issue. This article serves to illustrate some of the barriers to a transformative ethnic politics -- barriers that the new president will have to overcome to enact real change.



Keywords: Iran; minorities; elections; securitization; tribalism; regionalism

In January 2014, newly incumbent president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, was busy implementing a historic deal with Western powers over Iran’s controversial nuclear program. Yet in the middle of this demanding situation, Rouhani took the time to visit a province in Iran’s south-western corner. Meeting with local officials, he stated that ‘domestic politics, with all of the complications that come along with it, is more difficult than international politics’. Apart from an allusion to his domestic conservative adversaries who are wary of his rapprochement with the West, Rouhani also hinted at tensions marring Iranian society. While much attention is paid to external relations and foreign policy, crucial domestic challenges are often overlooked and understudied in the coverage of Iran.

Indeed, why was it so important for Rouhani to visit a province in the periphery? Bordering Iraq, the province of Khuzestan is an extremely sensitive region that contains much of the oil industry generating vital state income. It is also home to ethnic minorities, including a significant and largely discontented community of Arabs. When framed ethnically, Iranian politicians view Arab expressions of discontent as a separatist threat.

Although Iran has been known historically in the West as Persia, non-Persian minorities make up a large segment of the population – about half, according to estimates commonly cited in Western works.  Ethnic minorities such as the Azeris, Kurds, Lors, Gilakis, Arabs, Baluch and Turkmen coalesce around shared notions of kinship, regional belonging and/or a language different from the majority’s Persian. Religious minorities such as Christian Armenians, Jews and Zoroastrians identify in religious terms different from the Muslim majority. The Sunni Muslims among the Kurds, Turkmen, and Baluch are both ethnically and religiously different than the Persian-speaking Shiite majority. Furthermore, several of these communities have historical bonds with co-ethnics in neighbouring countries.

A diverse and growing ethnic movement now challenges the socioeconomic, political and cultural hegemony of the Persian-speaking centre, claiming that the Islamic Republic discriminates against minorities. With its demands for decentralization and ethnic rights, this collective but unorganized ethnic mobilization is perceived as a threat by Iranian nationalists of both secularist and Islamist persuasions, who argue that the movement runs counter to Iran’s national identity, historic unity and territorial integrity. The state has reacted to minority activism with violence and repression. The minority issue, in short, constitutes a key site of contention in Iranian identity politics.

The present article explores the role of ethnicity in voter dynamics during the combined presidential and local council elections in 2013. Through a specific focus on these elections in the province of Khuzestan, I will anatomize the complexity involved in ethnic politics in Iran today.  I argue that apart from as a reflection of growing ethnic awareness, this complexity should also be read within the context of centre/periphery contestation, and with an eye to the role of tribalism. By adding to the preciously few studies of post-revolution Iranian provincial politics,  and by tentatively assessing the prospects of a transformative minority politics, the article will thus help broaden the discussion on obstacles to democratization in Iran."