Ethnicity, Inequality and Conflict: An Introduction

Abstract

This book examines ethnic inequalities in the public institutions of governance in Trinidad and Tobago (hereafter Trinidad) as well as the strategies for managing the communal and inter-ethnic conflicts that such inequalities tend to engender. In what follows, several concepts and themes assume salience: the multi-ethnic state; the ethnic phenomenon; distributive justice and inequality; adaptation of political structures and institutions in democratic governance; the role of symbols of recognition in representation; and strategies of conflict management (power sharing; resource allocation; public policy, etc.). In this introductory part of the book, we explore these ideas and their importance. The overall context is the multi-ethnic condition, which today typifies the social and cultural composition of the contemporary state in both developed and underdeveloped countries, but with the cleavages being found to be more extensive, exclusive, and deeper in the latter.