Dominant minority

A dominant minority, also called elite dominance, is a minority group that has overwhelming political, economic, or cultural dominance in a country, despite representing a small fraction of the overall population (a demographic minority). The term is most commonly used to refer to an ethnic group that is defined along racial, national, religious, cultural or tribal lines and that holds a disproportionate amount of power and wealth compared to the rest of the population.

For other uses, see Minority (disambiguation).

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.

A notable example is that of South Africa during the apartheid regime, where white South Africans, more specifically Afrikaners, wielded predominant control of the country, despite never composing more than 22 percent of the population.^[1] African-American-descended nationals in Liberia, white Zimbabweans in Rhodesia, Sunni Arabs in Ba'athist Iraq, the Alawite minority in Syria (since 1970 under the rule of the Alawite Assad family),^[2] and the Tutsi in Rwanda since the 1990s also have been cited as current or recent examples.^[3]

In Brazil, despite the plurality of its population being pardo (45.3%)^[4] this demographic is more affected by poverty, has a higher illiteracy rate, is more likely to be murdered,^[5] and is most likely to live in favelas (a Brazilian Portuguese slang for a slum). In contrast, the white population in the country (42.8%) has, on average, better access to education, job opportunities, and a higher wage, with the white workforce earning 80% more than black Brazilians.^[6][7][8] Black and pardo Brazilians are underrepresented in Congress, with 71.9% of elected deputies being white, while 21.1% are pardos, and 5.3% being black.^[9][10]

See also

• Politics portal

• Colonialism
  • exploitation colonialism
  • plantation colonies
  • settler colonialism
• Elitism
• Herrenvolk democracy
• Middleman minority
• Minoritarianism
• Minority influence
• Model minority
• Neocolonialism
• Pseudo-secularism
• Tyranny of the majority
• World on Fire, a book that introduces the concept of "market-dominant minority"

Footnotes

1. Mayne, Alan (1999). From Politics Past to Politics Future: An Integrated Analysis of Current and Emergent Paradigms. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-275-96151-0.
2. "The 'secretive sect' in charge of Syria". BBC News. 17 May 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
3. "Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter". BBC News. 7 April 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
4. Azevedo, Ana Laura Moura dos Santos (2022). "Conheça o Brasil - População: Cor ou raça" [Discover Brazil - Population: Color or race]. IBGE Educa Jovens (in Portuguese). Retrieved 22 September 2023.
5. Nugent, Ciara; Thaís, Regina (16 December 2020). "How Black Brazilians Are Looking to a Slavery-Era Form of Resistance to Fight Racial Injustice Today". Time. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
6. Duque, Daniel. "As desigualdades raciais moldam a desigualdade social no Brasil". pp.nexojornal.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 23 September 2023. Nos Estados Unidos, segundos dados do Economic Policy Institute, homens brancos ganham em média 36% a mais do que homens negros, enquanto no Reino Unido, esse diferencial é de cerca de 15% entre ambas populações (incluindo homens e mulheres). O Brasil, por sua vez, apresenta uma disparidade muito mais elevada: brancos entre 18 e 59 anos na força de trabalho ganham cerca de 82% a mais do que aqueles de cor/raça parda ou preta (doravante negros). [In the United States, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute, white men earn on average 36% more than black men, while in the United Kingdom, this gap is around 15% between both populations (including men and women). Brazil, on the other hand, has a much higher disparity: whites aged between 18 and 59 in the workforce earn around 82% more than those of pardo or black color/race (from now on blacks).]
7. Cucolo, Eduardo (14 November 2019). "Whites Earn 74% More than Blacks in Brazil". Folha de S.Paulo. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
8. Telles, Edward. "Racial Discrimination and Miscegenation: The Experience in Brazil". UN Chronicle. United Nations. Non-whites are major victims of human rights abuses, including widespread police violence. On average, brown Brazilians earn half of the income of the white population. Most notably, the middle class and the elite are almost entirely white, so Brazil's well-known melting pot only exists among the working class and the poor. Non-white Brazilians were rarely found in the country's top universities, until affirmative action began in 2001.
9. "O perfil dos deputados federais eleitos em 2022, em dez gráficos" [The profile of elected deputies in 2022 in 10 visual charts]. Nexo Jornal (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 23 September 2023.
10. "Bancada negra cresce no Congresso, mas aumento é abaixo do registrado em 2018" [Black caucus grows in Congress, but growth is below that recorded in 2018]. Folha de S.Paulo (in Brazilian Portuguese). 3 October 2022. Retrieved 23 September 2023. Neste ano, o cenário após a votação é de 135 negros vitoriosos nas urnas (108 pardos e 27 pretos), o equivalente a 26% das vagas. Os brancos são 369, e ocuparão 72% das cadeiras na Câmara. [This year, after the vote, 135 blacks were victorious at the polls (108 pardos and 27 blacks), equivalent to 26% of the seats. There are 369 whites, and they will occupy 72% of the seats in the National Congress]

References

• Barzilai, Gad. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003). ISBN 978-0-472-03079-8
• Chua, Amy. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (Doubleday, New York, 2003). ISBN 0-385-50302-4
• Gibson, Richard. African Liberation Movements: Contemporary Struggles against White Minority Rule (Institute of Race Relations: Oxford University Press, London, 1972). ISBN 0-19-218402-4
• Haviland, William. Cultural Anthropology. (Vermont: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993). p. 250-252. ISBN 0-15-508550-6.
• Johnson, Howard and Watson, Karl (eds.). The White Minority in the Caribbean (Wiener Publishing, Princeton, NJ, 1998). ISBN 976-8123-10-9, ISBN 1-55876-161-6
• Russell, Margo and Martin. Afrikaners of the Kalahari: White Minority in a Black State ( Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979). ISBN 0-521-21897-7