Department of sociology and anthropology, university of haifa, haifa 31905, israel. The initial draft of the first paper, the model of ethnic democracy. Israel as an archetype h untington estimates that in 1990 there were independent states having a population of at least one million people, of which 59 45. Sammy smooha a zionist state, a binational state and an in. Professional linguistic requirements in estonia and latvia. The following paper presents the basic concept for the democracy ranking of the quality of democracy and positions this approach in context of academic discourses about democracy and the quality of democracy.
In comparison, in 1973 there were only 30 democratic states out of 122 24. In 1215, english nobles pressured king john of england to sign a document known as the magna carta, a key step on the road to constitutional democracy. Alongside this liberal type of democracy, the west has another, though. Active civic participation of immigrants in estonia pdf. Smooha in particular argues that ethnocracy, allowing a privileged status to a dominant ethnic majority while ensuring that all. The term ethnic democracy was introduced by university of haifa sociologist sammy smooha in a book published in 1989. Since world war ii the liberal nationstate has been under global.
Yoav peled, ethnic democracy and the legal construction of citizenship, 86 amer. However, aiming for liberdemocracy evaluation, it reasonable to take other classification presented by sammy smooha. Along with individualliberal democracy, republicanliberal democracy and consociational democracy, multicultural democracy and ethnic democracy are taking shape as alternative types of democracy. Sammy smooha is professor of sociology at the university of haifa. Israel as a jewish and democratic state sammy smooha department of sociology and anthropology, university of haifa, haifa 31905, israel abstract.
Types of democracy and modes of conflict management in. Twenty years of south african democracy freedom house. Jan 01, 2008 for interpretations of ethnic democracy in israel, see sammy smooha, minority status in an ethnic democracy. Sammy smooha discusses israels nature as a jewish, zionist, and democratic state and presents three models of israels national character. During the last two decades, smooha s voluminous work on ethnic politics in israel has gained a central position among social. While there is strong disappointment with the government and its leaders. He considers israel to be an example of an ethnic democracy. Ethnic democracy is a political system that combines a structured ethnic dominance with. Ribot world resources institute 10 g street, ne suite 800 washington, dc 20002. Rather, the model of ethnic democracy seeks to conceptualise and explain these difficulties. However, today, as in the past, the most common form of democracy, whether for a town of 50,000 or a nation of 50 million, is representative democracy, in which citizens some local jurisdictions in the united states.
Israel as a jewish and democratic state, nation and nationalism 8 2002. Smooha introduced the concept of ethnic democracy, in a book published in 1989. In 1996 linz and stepan followed linzs original usage and employed the term type ii, pp. During the last two decades, smooha s voluminous work on ethnic politics in israel has gained a central position among social scientists in israel and beyond. Visiting scholar research research peace and conflict. Nor is an ethnic democracy a herrenvolk democracy which is by definition a democracy officially limited to the core ethnic nation only. Waiting for democracy the politics of choice in natural resource decentralization wri report. He specializes in comparative ethnic relations, and has researched the internal divisions in israeli society, and the society of israel in comparative perspective. Acknowledgments this paper integrates two unpublished papers. Key dimensions of democracy are freedom, equality and control.
Quality of democracy models commonly emphasize a democracy understanding. It is commonly assumed that democracy in deeply divided societies takes either a majoritarian or consociational form. May 20, 2017 it is interesting to see whether malaysia will move on to adopt a system of ethnic democracy, which is described by sammy smooha pdf as a. In the west there are also several cases of consociational democracy in which separate national communities and their collective rights are recognised. Ethnic democracy is an analytic model meant to describe a form of state that combines majoritarian electoral procedures and respect for the rule of law and individual citizenship rights with the. Professor sammy smooha is professor of sociology at the university of haifa since 1974 and a visiting professor in the sociology department and the schusterman center for israel studies at brandeis university 201011. Forms of direct democracy in this primer, the term direct democracy is used to designate mechanisms that enable the electorate to vote on a specific law, treaty, constitutional amendment, policy or other public decision. Sammy smooha in this article, reprinted from nationalism and binationalism. Modern democracy differs in many ways from the greek version, but it fascinates m odern schol ars to the sam e degree. Types of democracy and modes of conflict management in ethnically. In this essay we present a critique of the ethnic democracy model, formulated by political sociologist sammy smooha to account for israels political structure. Aug 12, 2019 ethnic democracy is a political system that combines a structured ethnic dominance with democratic, political and civil rights for all.
Characteristics, cases and comparisons, was written during my term as a skirball visiting fellow at the oxford centre for hebrew and jewish studies, yarntonoxford spring 1997 and later versions during my stay as a visiting research fellow at the. The main question that comes to mind is what types of democracy prevalent in these societies. Twenty years of south african democracy executive summary after 20 years of democracy, south africans celebrate that human rights have been realized and that society is transforming. Both the dominant ethnic group and the minority ethnic groups have citizenship and are able to fully participate in the political process. Contrary to its selfimage and international reputation as a western liberal democracy, israel is an ethnic democracy in which the jews appropriate the state and make it a tool for advancing their national security, demography, public space, culture and interests.
Originally developed by israeli sociologist sammy smooha, ethnic democracy can be defined as a diminished type of democracy that offers. The western democratic nationstate is a model state in the world state system. The challenge of institutionalizing ethnicity in the western. This implies that the extent of gir in israel does not undermine its democratic. The western democratic nation state is a model state in the world state system. Waiting for democracy the politics of choice in natural resource decentralization jesse c. Sammy smooha is professor emeritus of sociology at the university of haifa. Sammy smooha, the model of ethnic democracy, ecmi working paper no. A methodological critique of the concept of ethnic democracy. Although often rightly unnoticed and thus of little interest for the majority of workers, such requirements can have disproportionate adverse effects on the lives of migrants and, crucially, ethnic and linguistic minorities.
An array of problematic issues arises when professional linguistic requirements are scrutinised. While the state in both types is ethnically neutral, there are some countries that combine viable democratic institutions with institutionalized ethnic dominance. Smooha contends that israel is a model or archetypical ethnic democracy. Constitutional patriotism, citizenship, and belonging. Particularly in recent years, economists have become greatly concerned with the question of how different democratic.
A zionist state, a binational state and an inbetween jewish and democratic state march 12, 20 written by. Types of democracy and modes of conflict management in ethnically divided societies. It has kept its basic character but partially decoupled nation and state and recognised group differences. Sammy smooha doctor of philosophy university of haifa. The basic concept for the democracy ranking of the quality of. A response to sammy smooha in this essay we present a critique of the ethnic democracy model, formulated by political sociologist sammy smooha to account for israels political structure. The main question that comes to mind is what types of democracy prevalent in these societies are and how. Being consistent, it has to be said that ethnic democracy is the kind political system that combined of both democratic values and ethnic ascendancy. Nov 15, 2008 this paper uses the religion and state ras dataset, which includes detailed information on government involvement in religion gir. By doing so, the king acknowledged he was bound by law, like others, and granted his subjects legal rights. The article introduces this third, so far not recognized, general type of ethnic democracy and demonstrates its utility for israel in treating its arab minority. However, scholars such as gershon shafir, yoav peled and sammy smooha prefer the term ethnic democracy to describe israel, which is intended to represent a middle ground between an ethnocracy and a liberal democracy. Sammy smooha presents three models of israels national character, focusing on israels identity as a jewish and.
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