Review article

Ethnic Conflicts and Ways of Resolving Them

Ružica Čičak-Chand ; Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The comparative evaluation of regulating ethnic conflict is exceptionally important, since we all belong to some ethnic community, and since mutual relations are too important to be left to ethnic partiality. Therefore in analyzing ways of resolving ethnic conflicts the primary duty of the scientist is to treat both the "ethnic question" in the broad sense, and ethnic conflicts in the narrow sense. This paper examines the main methods in regulating ethnic conflict in a word that is changing along with an attempt at evaluating morality, feasibility and the effects of utilizing various strategies in various setting. The paper is based on the book The Politics of Ethnic Conflict Regulation, edited by John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary and published in London in 1993. Apart from a theoretic, very valuable introduction on classification individual methods of regulating ethnic conflicts, the book includes eleven studies of ethnic disputes and various approaches to their resolution in various parts of the world (Belgium, Burundi, Fiji, India, former Yugoslavia, South Africa, Canada, Malaysia, Northern Ireland, former Soviet Union and Spain). Along with an analysis of historical causes of the formation and development of conflicts, and political happenings tied to specific ethnic configurations every author attempted to identify which theoretical models, as presented in the introduction, are applied (or were applied) in resolving conflicts in a given setting. In this paper, due to specific reasons, we restricted the revise to ethnic situations in six countries: Belgium, Fiji, South Africa, Canada, Malaysia and Spain. We aimed at indicating cases in which examples of (present and former) consociational practice were presented. These are certainly the most democratic among existing alternatives in resolving ethnic conflicts in pluralistic societies.

Keywords

ethnic conflict; ethnicity; comparative evaluation; ethnic question; consociationalism

Hrčak ID:

126950

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/126950

Publication date:

31.3.1995.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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