Polyethnicity

In 1985, Canadian historian William H. McNeill gave a series of three lectures on polyethnicity in ancient and modern cultures at the University of Toronto. The main thesis throughout his lectures was the argument that it has been the cultural norm for societies to be composed of different ethnic groups. McNeill argued that the ideal of homogeneous societies may have grown between 1750 and 1920 in Western Europe because of the growth in the belief in a single nationalistic base for the political organization of society. McNeill believed that during World War I, the desire for homogeneous nations began to weaken. == Impact on politics ==

Polyethnicity divides nations, complicating the politics as local and national governments attempt to satisfy all ethnic groups. The idea of nationalism being social instead of ethnic entails a variety of culture, a shared sense of identity and a community not based on descent. Culturally-plural states vary constitutionally between a decentralized and unitary state (such as the United Kingdom) and a federal state (such as Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada). Ethnic parties in these polyethnic regions are not anti-state but instead seek maximum power within this state. The following nations and regions are just a few specific examples of this dilemma and its effects: United States The United States is a nation founded by different ethnicities frequently described as coming together in a "melting pot," a term used to emphasize the degree to which constituent groups influence and are influenced by each other, or a "salad bowl," a term more recently coined in contrast to the "melting pot" metaphor and emphasizing those groups' retention of fundamentally distinct identities despite their proximity to each other and their influence on the overall culture that all of those groups inhabit. A controversial political issue in recent years has been the question of bilingualism. Many immigrants have come from Hispanic America, who are native Spanish speakers, in the past centuries and have become a significant minority and even a majority in many areas of the Southwest. In New Mexico the Spanish speaking population exceeds 40%. Disputes have emerged over language policy, since a sizeable part of the population, and in many areas the majority of the population, speak Spanish as a native language. It has evolved into an ethnic conflict between the pluralists who support bilingualism and linguistic access and the assimilationists who strongly oppose this and lead the official English movement. The United States does not have an official language, but English is the de facto national language and is spoken by the overwhelming majority of the country's population. Canada Canada has had many political debates between the French speakers and English speakers, particularly in the province of Quebec. Canada holds both French and English as official languages. The politics in Quebec are largely defined by nationalism as French Québécois wish to gain independence from Canada as a whole, based on ethnic and linguistic boundaries. The main separatist party, Parti Québécois, attempted to gain sovereignty twice (once in 1980 and again in 1995) and failed by a narrow margin of 1.2% in 1995. Since then, in order to remain united, Canada granted Quebec statut particulier, recognizing Quebec as a nation within the united nation of Canada. Belgium The divide between the Dutch-speaking north (Flanders) and the French-speaking South (Wallonia) has caused the parliamentary democracy to become ethnically polarized. Though an equal number of seats in the Chamber of Representatives are prescribed to the Flemish and Walloons, Belgian political parties have all divided into two ideologically identical but linguistically and ethnically different parties. Ethiopia Ethiopia is a polyethnic nation consisting of 80 different ethnic groups and 84 indigenous languages. The diverse population and the rural areas throughout the nation made it nearly impossible to create a strong centralized state, but it was eventually accomplished through political evolution. Prior to 1974, nationalism was discussed only within radical student groups, but by the late 20th century, the issue had come to the forefront of political debate. Ethiopia was forced to modernize their political system to properly handle nationalism debates. In the 1980s, Ethiopia suffered a series of famines and, after the Soviet Union broke apart, lost its aid from the Soviets; the Derg government later collapsed. It was still impossible to create a central government holding all power and so the central government was torn. It now presides over ethnically-based regional states, and each ethnic state is granted the right to establish its own government with democracy. Spain In Spain from 1808 to 1814, the Spanish War of Independence took place in a multicultural Spain. Spain, at the time, was then under the control of King Joseph Bonaparte, who was Napoleon Bonaparte's brother. Most of insular Southeast Asia (namely Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia) practices mostly Sunni Islam. The rest of the insular region (Philippines and East Timor) practices mostly Roman Catholic Christianity and Singapore practises mostly Mahayana Buddhism. Relations between the indigenous population of the region arose from regional variations of cultural and linguistic groups. This differs from both nearby East and South Asia. == Impact on society ==

Polyethnicity, over time, can change the way societies practice cultural norms. In 2000, self-identified Multiracial Americans numbered 6.8 million or 2.4% of the population. While the number of interethnic marriages is on the rise, there are certain ethnic groups that have been found more likely to become polyethnic and recognize themselves with more than one ethnic background. Bhavani Arabandi states in his article on polyethnicity that: Asians and Latinos have much higher rates of interethnic marriages than do blacks, and they are more likely to report polyethnicity than blacks who more often claim a single ethnicity and racial identity. This is the case, the authors [Lee, J & Bean, F.D] argue, because blacks have a "legacy of slavery," a history of discrimination, and have been victimized by the "one-drop rule" (where having any black blood automatically labeled one as black) in the US. While there are many examples of polyethnic forces, the most prominent are among the largest armed forces in the world, including those of the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China. == Criticisms ==

There are also arguments against polyethnicity, as well as the assimilation of ethnicities in polyethnic regions. Wilmot Robertson in The Ethnostate and Dennis L. Thomson in The Political Demands of Isolated Indian Bands in British Columbia, argue for some level of separatism. Essentially, polyethnicity promotes the dilution of ethnicity and thus hinders each ethnicity in all aspects of culture. In The Political Demands of Isolated Indian Bands in British Columbia, Thomson points out the benefits in some level (albeit small) of separatist policies. He argues the benefits of allowing ethnic groups, like the Amish and the Hutterites in the United States and Canada or the Sami in Norway, to live on the edges of governance. These are ethnic groups that would prefer to retain their ethnic identity and thus prefer separatist policies for themselves, as they do not require them to conform to policies for all ethnicities of the nation. == See also ==