Elections in the world today have been determined by many factors, and among them is ethnicity. Ethnic enclaves have been used since the age of modern democracy to dictate the level of government control by civilians and the regime and shape the order of political power. Ethnicity has been used in many regions, especially in Africa, Asia, Latin America and parts of Europe, to inform the political decisions and reservation for political representation. Therefore, it can be determined that some parts of the world are still stuck to ethnic enclaves to make political choices and reservations at the expense of democracy.
Ethnicity informs political decisions and institutional reservation in the manner that especially in India where politics and elections are driven by ethnic head counting. The same is witnessed in heterogenous countries in Europe where linguistic divisions are mapped onto the political parties with deterministic divisions. The situation is worse in Africa where elections and political parties are determining the regime to be in power in a kind of “census-like” elections. In the 1990s, the Latin America has witnessed a rise in ethnic political parties which were used by political leaders to win political power especially the presidency.
Ethnic boundaries are therefore used for political manipulation which is a product of historical construction and the cleavages in ideology and partisans. The problem is that negative ethnicity has been used as a contraction of electoral violence and riots especially in Africa, Asia, and eastern Europe. According to Human Rights watch, it can be determined that political elites have been using communal tensions and negative ethnicity to advance to political power or entrench political might. This because It can be deduced that ethnic violence does not happen in large scale unless the military is complacent of is aligned to a specificethnic ideology. Therefore, political elites use ethnic counter mobilization to perpetuate their own agendas and have the say of the ethnic minorities muzzled.
One of the factors which cause ethnic violence is the electoral incentives which are based on the desire to control socioeconomic factors and their distribution along the ethnic diversity. This aspect is exemplified in the relationship of the Hindu and the muslim in India, where the two have been grappling with violence ever since the time of independence in 1947. The violence which ensued tore the country into and is threatening to divide the nation once again soon. The ability to control the violence between the two factions because law enforcements in the region is such that they dominate the local factors.
In the societies of eastern Europe, ethnicity demands that political reservation is a manner that they have been factored by the desire to conform to the consensus or consociate policies. The product of this is that there are split legislatures and the allocation of positions in the government. This amounts to an unequal distribution of representation in the legislature and a tyranny of management of the countries policies through majority dictatorship. Some countries, however, have had affirmative actions to ensure that minority representation is adequately featured in the allocation quotas.
In conclusion, it can be determined that ethnicity and communal patronizations are a determinant of the political direction in most parts of the world. Political elites use ethnic boundaries to ascent and entrench power. However, it can be deduced that some regions have gone above ethnic enclaves and established mechanisms which would see the minority in the society have adequate representation in the government. Negative ethnicity has been a recipe for riots and violence and therefore, without the support of the ruling regime, it is hard for the nations to have an effective and all-inclusive government and regime. It is unfortunate that ethnicity is still dominates global politics and regime power sharing in the 21st century.
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