NON-SEPARATIST POLICIES REGARDING ETHNIC-MINORITIES - POSITIVE APPROACHES AND AMBIGUOUS CONSEQUENCES

This paper provides a tour d'horizon of institutional and other nonsep aratist responses to ethnic minority claims, including affirmative act ion, ethnic recruitment, ethnic language maintenance and instruction, communalism, multiculturalism, supranationalism, and ''corporatist'' a rrangements. It is suggested that these responses may have positive as well as unintended or perverse consequences both for society at large and for the minority ethnic group. These consequences depend on a var iety of factors, among them the degree of economic and political devel opment; the rootedness and cohesion of the ethnic minority community; the nature and attitudes of the ethnic elite; the intensity of ethnic cultural commitment; and the sincerity of national policy makers. Fina lly, the paper sets out the conditions conducive to combining ''nation al integration'' with ethnic minority accommodation.