Herrenvolk democracy

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Flag of the Confederate States (1861-1863).svg
Confederate States of America
Flag of South Africa (1928-1994).svg
Apartheid South Africa
Flag of Rhodesia (1968-1979).svg
Republic of Rhodesia
Flag of Liberia.svg
Pre-1946 Liberia
Flag of Israel.svg
The State of Israel
The Confederate States of America (flag, top; 1861–1865), Apartheid South Africa (flag, upper middle; 1948–1994), Rhodesia (flag, middle; 1965–1980), Liberia (flag, lower middle, 1847–1946) and Israel [1] [2] [3] (flag, bottom; 1948–present) have been proposed as examples of Herrenvolk democracy.

Herrenvolk democracy is a nominally democratic form of government in which only a specific ethnic group has voting rights and the right to run for office, while other groups are disenfranchised. [4] Herrenvolk democracy is a subtype of ethnocracy, which refers to any form of government where one ethnic group dominates the state, with or without elections. Elections were/are generally free, but voting suffrage was restricted based on race, with governance that reflected the interests of the politically dominant racial group. The German term Herrenvolk, meaning "master race", was used in nineteenth century discourse that justified German colonialism with the supposed racial superiority of Europeans. [5]

Contents

Characteristics

This form of government is typically employed by an ethnic group or groups to maintain control and power within the system. It is often accompanied with a pretense of egalitarianism.[ clarification needed ] As people of the dominant ethnic group gain freedom and liberty and egalitarian principles are advanced, other ethnic groups are repressed and prevented from being involved in the government.

The term was first used in 1967 by Pierre van den Berghe in his book Race and Racism . [6]

Examples

In his 1991 book The Wages of Whiteness, historian David R. Roediger reinterprets this form of government in the context of 19th-century United States, arguing that the term "Herrenvolk republicanism" more accurately describes racial politics at this time. The basis of Herrenvolk republicanism went beyond the marginalization of black people in favor of a republican government serving the "master race"; it contended that "blackness" was synonymous with dependency and servility and was, therefore, antithetical to republican independence and white freedom. [7] Consequently, the dependent white worker at this time used his whiteness to differentiate himself from and elevate himself over the dependent black worker or enslaved person. [8] According to this ideology, black people were not merely "non-citizens"; they were "anti-citizens" who inherently opposed the ideals of a republican government. [9]

This principle can be seen in the development of both the United States—especially the Southern states—and South Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries. [10] In these historical scenarios, even as legislation moved toward universal male suffrage and later toward universal suffrage for white people, it also further entrenched restrictions on political participation by black people and upheld their disenfranchisement. [11] Southern Rhodesia and later Rhodesia restricted voting rights by qualifications like income and literacy, thus effectively restricting the franchise to the white population. [12]

In Liberia voting was restricted to descendants of Americo-Liberians until 1946. [13] [14] Liberian nationality law is not alone:

At least half a dozen [African] countries effectively ensure that those from certain ethnic groups can never obtain nationality from birth; nor can their children nor their children’s children. At the most extreme end, Liberia and Sierra Leone, both founded by freed slaves, take the position that only those of “Negro” (Liberia) or “NegroAfrican” (Sierra Leone)[ when? ] descent can be citizens from birth. Sierra Leone also provides for more restrictive rules for naturalisation of “non-negro-Africans”, while Liberia provides that those not “of Negro descent” are not only excluded from citizenship from birth, but, “in order to preserve, foster, and maintain the positive Liberian culture, values, and character”, are prohibited from becoming citizens even by naturalisation.

Manby, 2016 [15]

Following the dissolution of the Republican Party in the 1890s, Liberia turned into a one-party state under the True Whig Party until 1980.

Some scholars and commentators, including Ilan Pappé, Baruch Kimmerling, and Meron Benvenisti, have characterized Israel as a Herrenvolk democracy due to Israel's de facto control of the occupied territories whose native inhabitants may not vote in Israeli elections. [1] [2] [16] [17] Others, such as Sammy Smooha, Ilan Peleg, Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Adi Ophir, have asserted that this characterization is invalid, variously describing the Israeli regime as a liberal democracy, ethnic democracy, illiberal democracy or a "hybrid regime". [18] [19] [20] [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in socially based systems of racial classification in the Western world, the term "black" is used to describe persons who are perceived as dark-skinned compared to other populations. It is most commonly used for people of sub-Saharan African ancestry, Indigenous Australians and Melanesians, though it has been applied in many contexts to other groups, and is no indicator of any close ancestral relationship whatsoever. Indigenous African societies do not use the term black as a racial identity outside of influences brought by Western cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Liberia</span>

Liberia is a country in West Africa founded by free people of color from the United States. The emigration of African Americans, both freeborn and recently emancipated, was funded and organized by the American Colonization Society (ACS). The mortality rate of these settlers was the highest among settlements reported with modern recordkeeping. Of the 4,571 emigrants who arrived in Liberia between 1820 and 1843, only 1,819 survived (39.8%).

The crime of apartheid is defined by the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as inhumane acts of a character similar to other crimes against humanity "committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bantustan</span> Territory created by the Apartheid regime of South Africa

A Bantustan was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa, as a part of its policy of apartheid.

Supremacism is the belief that a certain group of people is superior to all others. The supposed superior people can be defined by age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, language, social class, ideology, nationality, culture, generation or belong to any other part of a particular population.

In political science, minoritarianism is a neologism for a political structure or process in which a minority group of a population has a certain degree of primacy in that population's decision making, with legislative power or judicial power being held or controlled by a minority group rather than a majority that is representative of the population.

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. 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.

An ethnocracy is a type of political structure in which the state apparatus is controlled by a dominant ethnic group to further its interests, power, dominance, and resources. Ethnocratic regimes in the modern era typically display a 'thin' democratic façade covering a more profound ethnic structure, in which ethnicity – and not citizenship – is the key to securing power and resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apartheid</span> South African system of racial separation

Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation's minority white population. In this minoritarian system, there was social stratification and campaigns of marginalization such that white citizens had the highest status, with them being followed by Indians as well as Coloureds and then Black Africans. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly inequality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberian nationality law</span>

Liberian nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Liberia, as amended; the Aliens and Nationality Law, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Liberia. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the state under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual within the nation. Liberian nationality is based on descent from a person who is "Negro", regardless of whether they were born on Liberian soil, jus soli, or abroad to Liberian parents, jus sanguinis. The Negro clause was inserted from the founding of the colony as a refuge for free people of color, and later former slaves, to prevent economically powerful communities from obtaining political power. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bantu peoples of South Africa</span> Ethnic descriptor in South Africa

South African Bantu-speaking peoples represent the majority indigenous ethno-racial group of South Africans. Occasionally grouped as Bantu, the term itself is derived from the English word "people", common to many of the Bantu languages. The Oxford Dictionary of South African English describes "Bantu", when used in a contemporary usage or racial context as "obsolescent and offensive", because of its strong association with the "white minority rule" with their Apartheid system. However, Bantu is used without pejorative connotations in other parts of Africa and is still used in South Africa as the group term for the language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israeli apartheid</span> Israeli system of racial separation and discrimination

Israeli apartheid is a system of institutionalized segregation and discrimination in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and to a lesser extent in Israel proper. This system is characterized by near-total physical separation between the Palestinian and the Israeli settler population of the West Bank, as well as the judicial separation that governs both communities, which discriminates against the Palestinians in a wide range of ways. Israel also discriminates against Palestinian refugees in the diaspora and against its own Palestinian citizens.

The term ethnic democracy, as used by some political scientists, purports to describe a political system that combines a structured ethnic dominance with democratic, political and civil rights for all. Both the dominant ethnic group—typically an ethnic majority—and the minority ethnic groups have citizenship and are able to fully participate in the political process. However, critics of the "ethnic democracy" model argue it is a contradiction in terms, and thus conceptually inadequate or confusing; these critics allege that purported ethnic democracies, most notably Israel, are not democratic at all, or are at best a sort of semi-democracy.

Black suffrage refers to black people's right to vote and has long been an issue in countries established under conditions of black minorities as well as, in some cases black majorities.

Al-Ard was a Palestinian political movement made up of Arab citizens of Israel. It was active between 1958 and some time in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Tilley</span> Political scientist

Virginia Tilley is an American political scientist specialising in the comparative study of ethnic and racial conflict. She is Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in the US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Settler colonialism</span> Form of colonialism seeking population replacement with settlers

Settler colonialism occurs when colonizers and settlers invade and occupy territory to permanently replace the existing society with the society of the colonizers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminism in South Africa</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zionism as settler colonialism</span>

Zionism has been described by several scholars as a form of settler colonialism in relation to the region of Palestine and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This paradigm has been applied to Zionism by various scholars and figures, including Patrick Wolfe, Edward Said, Ilan Pappe, Noam Chomsky, and others who view Zionism as a form of settler colonialism. Many of Zionism's founders and leaders described their project as a colonial project, and major Zionist organizations and agencies central to Israel creation held names reflecting colonial identity.

References

  1. 1 2 Kimmerling, Baruch (2002-04-03). "Opinion | A matter of conscience : Israeli democracy's decline". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  2. 1 2 Barghouti, Omar (3 August 2011). "Dropping the last mask of democracy". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  3. Smooha, Sammy (April 1980). "Control of Minorities in Israel and Northern Ireland" (PDF). Comparative Studies in Society and History . 22 (2): 256–280. doi:10.1017/S0010417500009336. Archived from the original on 2015-11-15. Retrieved 2024-04-30.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. Vickery, Kenneth P. (June 1974). "'Herrenvolk' Democracy and Egalitarianism in South Africa and the U.S. South". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 16 (13): 309–328. doi: 10.1017/s0010417500012469 . JSTOR   17826.
  5. Gründer, Horst (1999). "Ideologie und Praxis des deutschen Kolonialismus" [Ideology and practice of German colonialism]. In Beck, Thomas (ed.). Überseegeschichte[Overseas history]. Stuttgart: F. Steiner. pp. 254 et seq. ISBN   9783515074902.
  6. van den Berghe, Pierre L. (1967). Race and Racism: A Comparative Perspective . New York; Sydney: Wiley.
  7. Roediger 1997, p. 172.
  8. Roediger 1997, pp. 59–60.
  9. Blevins, Cameron. "U.S. History Qualifying Exams: Book Summaries: The Wages of Whiteness". Archived from the original on 25 April 2014. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
  10. Anderson, T. L. "Herrenvolk Democracy: The Rise of the Alt-Right in Trump's America". Critical Theory and the Humanities in the Age of the Alt-Right. Palgrave Macmillan: 88.
  11. Vickery, Kenneth P. (June 1974). "'Herrenvolk' Democracy and Egalitarianism in South Africa and the U.S. South". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 16 (3): 311–315. doi: 10.1017/s0010417500012469 . JSTOR   17826.
  12. West, Michael O. (18 December 2008). ""Equal Rights for All Civilized Men": Elite Africans and the Quest for "European" Liquor in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1924-1961" (PDF). International Review of Social History. 37 (3): 382. doi:10.1017/S0020859000111344.
  13. Kazuteru Omori (2017). ""Little America" in Africa: Liberia as a Touchstone for African Americans" (PDF). The Japanese Journal of American Studies (28).
  14. "1900-1997 One Nation, Many Peoples". Library of Congress.
  15. Bronwen Manby (2016). Citizenship Law in Africa (3 ed.). Cape Town: African Minds. ISBN   978-1-928331-08-7.
  16. Ariely, Gal (2021). "Israel's Regime Conflicting Classifications". In Kumaraswamy, P. R. (ed.). The Palgrave International Handbook of Israel. Singapore: Springer. pp. 1–16. doi:10.1007/978-981-16-2717-0_2-1. ISBN   978-981-16-2717-0.
  17. Gerrard, Douglas (2019-04-19). "Weimar Israel". Jacobin . Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  18. Smooha, Sammy (1997). "Ethnic Democracy: Israel as an Archetype". Israel Studies. 2 (2): 198–241. ISSN   1084-9513.
  19. Smooha, Sammy (October 2002). "The model of ethnic democracy: Israel as a Jewish and democratic state". Nations and Nationalism. 8 (4): 475–503. doi:10.1111/1469-8219.00062. ISSN   1354-5078.
  20. Harel-Shalev, Ayelet; Peleg, Ilan (March 2014). "Hybridity and Israel's Democratic Order: The End of an Imperfect Balance?". Contemporary Review of the Middle East. 1 (1): 75–94. doi:10.1177/2347798913518462. ISSN   2347-7989.
  21. Ariely, Gal (2021-02-28). Israel's Regime Untangled: Between Democracy and Apartheid (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108951371.002. ISBN   978-1-108-95137-1.

Bibliography