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Concept
Dominant minority
Summary
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 (a demographic minority). Dominant minorities are also known as alien elites if they are recent immigrants.
The term is most commonly used to refer to an ethnic group which is defined along racial, national, religious, cultural or tribal lines and that holds a disproportionate amount of power.
A notable example is that of South Africa during the apartheid regime, where White South Africans, more specifically Afrikaners, wielded predominant control of the country, despite never composing more than 22 per cent of the population. African American-descended nationals in Liberia, White Zimbabweans in Rhodesia, Sunni Arabs in Ba'athist Iraq, the Alawite minority in Syria (since 1970 under the rule of the Alawite Assad family), and the Tutsi in Rwanda since the 1990s have also been cited as current or recent examples.
In Brazil, despite the majority of its population being racial African-Brazilians or pardos, those groups nevertheless live impoverished, have a high illiteracy rate, are more likely to be murdered, and are most likely to live in favelas (a Brazilian Portuguese slang for a slum). In contrast, the white population in the country has access to better education, job opportunities, and a higher wage. White Brazilians are better represented than other races in Brazil, including black people.
(Minority rule, of less permanency than described above and without the race or ethnic basis, is often seen when a political party takes a majority of seats and the reins of governmental power although receiving fewer than a majority of votes in an election. Election by plurality is common in self described democracies despite this type of minority rule being imposed on a frequent basis.
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