ABSTRACT
The political and socioeconomic problems confronting multiethnic societies have in recent years attracted increasing attention not only from politicians and academics, but also the public at large, mainly due to the impact of reethnicization of social segments and the widening of inequalities in Eastern Europe and the Balkan conflicts after the collapse of communism. Although ethnic diversity is not an exclusive feature of the developing countries, it is nevertheless critically relevant to them, since economic deprivation or desperate poverty ‘unduly heightens sensitivities and breeds a general atmosphere of unreasonableness and distrust, making it immensely more difficult to attain solutions to outstanding problems on the basis of a reasonable give and take’.1 That said, one should be mindful that the threat of ethnic unrest is not solely the bane of third world countries. The Economist observed in 1965 that the sizzling ethnic tension in Malaysia and Singapore at that time coincided with a week of race riots in Los Angeles, as well as ethnic violence in southern Sudan.2 The threat of interethnic mistrust looms large and wide. It could be both the scourge afflicting the poor nations, and the sword of Damocles even in times of prosperity.
