Separation, Assimilation, or Accommodation: Contrasting Ethnic Minority Policies

Ethnic violence is rampant, but avoidable. Cook compares and contrasts all major options in ethnic minority policy, including forms of separation, assimilation, or accommodation typically favored by subordinate ethnic groups. Topics include segregation and genocide, emigrations and secessionist struggles, attempts at cultural annihilation, assimilating for individual or collective opportunities, accommodations as minimal concessions in such things as tolerance, special group rights or power-sharing, and accommodations as maximal demands on those same themes. Grounded in current concrete examples, Cook's analysis brings coherence to a confused and often lethal political problem.

Delineates six broad alternative directions in ethnic minority policy, emphasizing ethnic group differences, similarities, or a mix of both.

TERRENCE E. COOK is Professor of Political Science at Washington State University, Pullman. He is the author of Nested Political Coalitions: Nation, Regime, Program, Cabinet (Praeger, 2002).