Essay on ethnic conflicts

If books can be had much cheaper from Ireland which I believe, for I bought Blackstone there for 24s. The gain to each may be equal. The original zero sum game.

Explanations generally fall into one of three schools of thought: More recent scholarship draws on all three schools.

Horowitz argues that this kinship "makes it possible for ethnic groups to think in terms of family resemblances". Ethnic groups will consequently always threaten the survival of civil governments but not the existence of nations formed by one ethnic group.

A number of political scientists argue that the root causes of ethnic conflict do not involve ethnicity per se but rather institutional, political, and economic factors. These scholars argue that the concept of ethnic war is misleading because it leads to an essentialist conclusion that certain groups are doomed Essay on ethnic conflicts fight each other when in fact the wars between them that occur are often the result of political decisions.

However, ethnic violence occurs in sporadic outbursts. For example, Varshney points out that although Yugoslavia broke up due to ethnic violence in the s, it had enjoyed a long peace of decades before the USSR collapsed.

Therefore, some scholars claim that it is unlikely that primordial ethnic differences alone caused the outbreak of violence in the s. Peterson argues that the existence of hatred and animosity does not have to be rooted in history for it to play a role in shaping human behavior and action: However, if hatred is conceived as a historically formed "schema" that guides action in some situations, then the conception should be taken Essay on ethnic conflicts seriously.

Moreover, the scholars of this school generally do not oppose the view that ethnic difference plays a part in many conflicts. They simply claim that ethnic difference is not sufficient to explain conflicts.

Hence, it is difficult to completely discount the role of inherent ethnic differences. Additionally, ethnic entrepreneurs, or elites, could be tempted to mobilize ethnic groups in order to gain their political support in democratizing states.

Instrumentalist scholars have tried to respond to these shortcomings. For example, Hardin[ who?

How Ferguson Became Ferguson

He points out that a charismatic leader acts as a focal point around which members of an ethnic group coalesce. The existence of such an actor helps to clarify beliefs about the behavior of others within an ethnic group.

Identity cards were issued on this basis, and these documents played a key role in the genocide of For example, Varshney highlights that in the s "racial violence in the USA was heavily concentrated in northern cities; southern cities though intensely politically engaged, did not have riots".

Scholars of ethnic conflict and civil wars have introduced theories that draw insights from all three traditional schools of thought. In The Geography of Ethnic Violence, for example, Monica Duffy Toft shows how ethnic group settlement patterns, socially constructed identities, charismatic leaders, issue indivisibility, and state concern with precedent setting can lead rational actors to escalate a dispute to violence, even when doing so is likely to leave contending groups much worse off.

As Varshney notes, "pure essentialists and pure instrumentalists do not exist anymore". At the end of the Cold War, academics including Samuel P.

Huntington and Robert D. Kaplan predicted a proliferation of conflicts fueled by civilisational clashesTribalismresource scarcity and overpopulation. Conflicts have involved secessionist movements in the former YugoslaviaTransnistria in MoldovaArmenians in AzerbaijanAbkhaz and Ossetians in Georgia.

Research shows that the fall of Communism and the increase in the number of capitalist states were accompanied by a decline in total warfare, interstate wars, ethnic wars, revolutionary wars, and the number of refugees and displaced persons.

If true, general explanations of ethnic violence would be impossible. In the years since, however, scholarly consensus has shifted to consider that ethnic groups may in fact be counted as rational actors, and the puzzle of their apparently irrational actions for example, fighting over territory of little or no intrinsic worth must therefore be explained in some other way.

Public goods provision[ edit ] A major source of ethnic conflict in multi-ethnic democracies is over the access to state patronage.

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Ethnic Nationalism and Civic Nationalism The discrimination between civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism is common in writings on nationalism and nations, whether it be as the civic-ethnic division, the political-cultural, or the Western-Eastern division.

The inherited English language term for this concept is folkused alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the midth century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan in the sense of disparate "nations" which did not yet participate in the Christian oikumeneas the Septuagint used ta ethne "the nations" to translate the Hebrew goyim "the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews".

Conflicts over state resources between ethnic groups can increase the likelihood of ethnic violence. In ethnically divided societies, demand for public goods decreases as each ethnic group derives more utility from benefits targeted at their ethnic group in particular.

Targeted benefits are more appealing because ethnic groups can solidify or heighten their social and economic status relative to other ethnic groups whereas broad programmatic policies will not improve their relative worth.

Executive summary

Politicians and political parties in turn, have an incentive to favor co-ethnics in their distribution of material benefits.Ethnic conflicts can be defined as conflicts between ethnic groups within a multi-ethnic state, which have been going on some time.

Many ethnic conflicts result in a significant loss of life, a serious denial of basic human rights and considerable material destruction, some escalating into inter ethnic or internal war.

Executive summary. In August , a Ferguson, Missouri, policeman shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. Michael Brown’s death and the resulting protests and racial tension brought considerable attention to that town. Read the IELTS globalisation essay.

Differences between countries become less evident each year. Nowadays, all over the world people share the same fashions, advertising, brands, eating habits and .

CHAPTER ONE Ethnic Nationalism and Civic Nationalism.

Ethnic group - Wikipedia

The discrimination between civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism is common in writings on nationalism and nations, whether it be as the civic-ethnic division, the political-cultural, or the Western-Eastern division.

Executive summary. In August , a Ferguson, Missouri, policeman shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. Michael Brown’s death and the resulting protests and racial tension brought considerable attention to that town.

Water is the most important single element needed in order for people to achieve the universal human right to "a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family.".