Study Of Ethnic Separation In The Process Of Concentrated Multinational States' Democratization

Ethnic separatism and dilemma of democratic transition are two significant issues that troubled the development of multinational states. They, viewed as worldwide problems,usually coexist in one country and interrelate with one another. Soviet and Eastern European countries changed the one-party communist system to multi-parties democracy since 1980s. At the same time, there are 22 new-independent countries out of Soviet Union,Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Then separatism broke out in these new states which brought domino effecting. Russia which has lead the disintegration of theSoviet Union suffered deeply from the Chechnya separatism. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which is out of pre-Yugoslavia were separated into three parts: Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo.Some countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, West Asia and North Africa have undergone democratic transition in the 21centry. Subsequently secession risks become seriously : South Ossetia and Abkhazia are out of Georgia , Kharkov, Lubiesk, Donetsk are out of eastern Ukraine , the national division, sectarian conflict and the civil war happened in Egypt, Syria, Libya and other countries. These examples show that democratization and separation are closely related. But why do some Multinational countries' democratization trigger or exacerbate secession issues whereas others are followed by accommodation and territorial integrity such as USA, Australia,Switzerland? What is the effect of national separation on democratic transformation? What we can learn from these countries? As a result, the research has a lot of theoretical and practical significance.The research on the relationship between democratic transformation and ethnic separatism is a complicated academic issue. Many states of varying levels about development, geographical environment, historical culture such as Spain, Turkey, Nigeria,Myanmar, Indonesia and so on have faced the risk of national division in the democratic transition. These countries have commons in the national structure, they are, a number of domestic ethnic groups have their own relatively independent concentration of residence,their own language, religion,historical traditions, customs,and even their own unique production and lifestyle. This national structure is defined as “multi-ethnic structure of settlement type" and the countries existing such a national structure are known as concentrated multinational states by the Shandong University Professor Wang Jianmin. My research method is based on his argument.From the point of methodology, my research focuses on whether multi-party competition system works well in concentrated multinational states.This thesis takes Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and the Philippines as five examples around China in the study. The paper structure is of horizontal structure and vertical structure. The horizontal structure includes the introduction of the problem part of the text and the conclusion. In the text, according to different national structures, .the five countries would be divided into "bi-national confrontation state" and "multinational confrontation state". Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines belongs to the first type and Myanmar and Indonesia belong to multinational confrontation state. On vertical structure,Firstly, it describes the characteristics of the "multinational structure" in each country,including the geographical distribution, administrative divisions, language, religion, culture and history of the main ethnic groups, reviewing the construction progress of national structure in each country, exploring the historical origins and background of democratic transformation and national separation in each country. Secondly, it analyzes the construction process of multiparty system and its characteristics in each country, showing the influence of the multinational structure on the democratic transformation. Thirdly, it proves that the democratic transformation under the influence of the multinational structure is an important realistic reason for the emergence and deterioration of the national separation in each country. It also analyzes the influence of the national separation on the democratic transformation. Finally, it shows the efforts and effects of the central government to promote national reconciliation during democratization process in each country. The relationship between democratic transformation and ethnic separatism is discussed at the end of each chapter.The conclusions of this paper are as follows: firstly, the concentrated multinational structure is the basic premise that the democratic transformation leads to the separation of the nation and even the division of the country. The diaspora structure does not produce such risks, such as the United States and Australia. But this is not to say that democratic transformation in these multinational countries is bound to yield ethnic separation.Whether ethnic separatism occurs depends on coupled effect of many factors such as the scale of nationality, religion, history, ethnic relations, transnational ethnicity, language,culture, economy andpolitics etc.Secondly, democratic transformation has played a negative role in the emergence and deterioration of ethnic separatism in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and the Philippines. The internal logic of the electoral system is that the majority rule would lead to control democracy. The party competition has to alienate into the national competition.The liberalization brought by the democratic transformation makes the political participation disorder and chaos, which the central government is unable to control. Under such circumstances, some ethnic minority's democratic demands and the tendency of national separation will be combined. Because the struggle for democracy is to get rid of power, when this power comes externally, the efforts become a struggle to get rid of alien control. Because of that, ethnic groups for independence is bound to become the first step in the demands of democracy.Thirdly, the separatist problems and the ethnic conflicts, civil war and terrorist attacksare the main obstacles to the democratic transformation and consolidation in these five countries. After the outbreak of the civil war, the radical Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese nationalists tried to undermine the constitutional reform of the central government to promote national reconciliation, so that the political reform almost failed and national reconciliation is in the foreseeable future. Malay Muslim separatism became a tool of political competition in the process of democratic transformation in Thailand, and the ongoing violence became an excuse for military to intervene in politics. Myanmar's democratic transformation is struggling under the national armed separatism. In Indonesia and the Philippines, the issue of ethnic separation became an important source of legitimacy for military dictatorships.Finally, through the case study of the five countries,we can summarize the relationship between democratic transformation and national separation as follows:democratic transformation in concentrated multinational states easily yield or worsen national separation. Ethnic separatism would hinder the consolidation of democracy, which could lead to the collapse of the democratic system, leading to reverted back to authoritarianism like military dictatorship (or other forms of authoritarian politics).Subsequently, the forces of democracy and the forces of separation are sometimes intertwined to fight against dictatorship. However, when democratic transition takes place again, ethnic separatism may recur and worsen, and once again constitutes a major threat to democratic transformation and democratic consolidation and it may form a double dilemma of democratic demobilization and national separatism.Therefore, the enlightments we can learn from the issue above are that we must be careful to put forward democratic transformation in the concentrated multinational states.Democratic path must be suitable for its own national conditions. For our country, while doing a good job of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics, we should guard against the color revolution and safeguard the unified leadership of the Communist Party of China. This is not only the inherent requirement of the socialist state ideology of our country, but also the basic guarantee for the unity of our country.