Peled, Yoav. 2014. The Challenge of Ethnic Democracy: The State and Minority Groups in Israel, Poland and Northern Ireland

Excerpt

Since its invention, the concept of ethnic democracy has been controversial. Central research questions are the following: Is Israel the only case, is Israel in fact an ethnic democracy, is the concept not a contradiction-in-terms, and even if descriptively useful, what is it saying normatively? Originally developed by Israeli sociologist Sammy Smooha, ethnic democracy can be defined as a “diminished type of democracy that offers members of minority ethnic groups an inferior kind of citizenship” (p. 2). The main contribution of the publication “The Challenge of Ethnic Democracy: The State and Minority Groups in Israel, Poland and Northern Ireland” to the current state of research is that it puts ethnic democracy in a comparative perspective. Yoav Peled, an associate professor of political science at the University of Tel Aviv, uses comparative historical analysis to argue that ethnic democracy is not unique to Israel, but can also be found in other divided countries. …