group reaches 50 per cent or more, then other ethnic groups face the possibil-
ity of permanent political exclusion in a democracy so switch from participat-
ing in democratic processes to protest and violence. Countries with large
ethnic minorities include Malaysia, Belgium, Canada, South Africa and
Rwanda and here majority voting has been perceived by minorities as having
led to such permanent exclusion (Bates, 2000). This is what Collier calls
‘dominance’ and Engelbert ‘suffocation’. There are numerous examples of
dominated/suffocated minorities undertaking secession attempts in Africa.
These include the Katanga, Kwilu, Kivu, and Haut-Congo provinces of
Congo, Ogaden and Eritrea in Ethiopia, Biafra in Nigeria, Ewe of Ghana,
Sanwi of Côte d’Ivoire, the coastal peoples and Somalis in Kenya, Tuaregs of
Mali, non-Arab populations of the Sudan, Baganda of Uganda and the
Casamance region of Senegal. Of these only Eritrea and to some extent
Somaliland have ever been successful (Englebert et al., 2002). A famous
example of political dominance being associated with poor economic policy
and destructive redistribution is post-independence Ghana (see Box 12.1).
Ethnicity as cultural determinant: a critique
There are three problems with these general arguments: first, that culture is the
central argument; second,the problem of distinguishing cultural from compet-
itive political mobilization; and third, that they ignore the issue of causation.
Finally, institutions can provide a possible solution to problems of social divi-
sions and conflict.
Is culture the key driving force?
The first criticism suggests that economic change,not culture,was the key to
understanding divisions based on ethnicity or other factors. For many develop-
ing countries political evolution after 1945 was characterized by conflict based
on ethnicity and class, such as rioting, frequent coups, loss of authority by
legislatures and courts, and disintegration of broadly based political parties.
Huntingdon explains that this conflict was due to ‘rapid social change and
mobilisation of new groups into politics and slow development of political
institutions’(1968:4). Conflict was the result not of pre-existing culturally
determined divisions but of economic change leading to new fissures in soci-
ety. Social and economic changes such as urbanization, industrialization,
increased literacy and expansion of the mass media had extended political
consciousness, multiplied political demands and increased political participa-
tion. The new elites such as civil servants and teachers competed with the tradi-
tional sources of political authority – the secular and religious leaders of the
villages, and social networks based around family, class and caste. The
primary problem was the slower development of political institutions relative
to this social and economic change:‘Economic development and political
stability are two independent goals and progress toward one has no necessary
connection with progress toward the other’ (Huntingdon, 1968:6). A specific
260 Patterns and Determinants of Economic Growth