ABSTRACT
Chua (2003) argues that countries with ethnically dominant minorities are effectively doomed to perpetual communal conflict. Indeed, her basic premise suggests that economically dominant ethnic communities are inevitably viewed with suspicion and envy. In many ways this position is understandable. Ethno-political conflicts in Zimbabwe, Fiji, and Indonesia have done little to reduce the ostensible validity of crude middleman arguments. Further, the use of outbidding in these states seems to verify many of Rabushka and Shepsle’s (1972) key arguments about the inherent frailty of democratic procedures in plural societies in general and counterbalanced states in particular.
