Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : dominant ethnicity : from background to foreground / Eric P. Kaufmann -- 1. Ethnic cores and dominant ethnies / Anthony D. Smith -- 2. The identity and changing status of former elite minorities : the contrasting cases of North Indian Muslims and American WASPs / Theodore P. Wright, Jr. -- 3. Dominant ethnicity and dominant nationhood / Andreas Wimmer -- 4. The decline of the WASP in the United States and Canada / Eric P. Kaufmann -- 5. 'Pures laines' Québécois : the concealed ethnicity of dominant majorities / Danielle Juteau -- 6. The concept of 'dominant ethnicity' in the case of France / Dominique Schnapper --7. The strange death of Protestant Britain / Steve Bruce -- 8. Russians as a dominant ethnie / Geoffrey Hosking -- 9. Citizenship, immigration and ethnic hegemony in Japan / Keiko Yamanaka -- 10. Towards a theory of ethnocratic regimes : learning from the Judaization of Israel/Palestine / Oren Yiftachel and As'ad Ghanem -- 11. 'Majority ethnic' claims and authoritarian nationalism : the case of Hindutva / Chetan Bhatt -- 12. The dynamics of ethnic minority domination in Fiji / Ralph R. Premdas.

"How are dominant ethnic groups, whether majority groups or dominant minorities, responding to the pressures of a global era? Are such groups in decline or are they successfully negotiating or resisting the challenge of new global values? The impact of liberal globalization and multiculturalism means that nations are under pressure to transform their national identities from an ethnic to a civic mode. This has led, in many cases, to dominant ethnic decline, but also to its peripheral revival in the form of Far Right politics. At the same time, the growth of mass democracy and the decline of post-colonial and Cold War state unity in the developing world has opened the floodgates for assertions of ethnic dominance. This volume investigates both tendencies and argues forcefully for the importance of dominant ethnicity in the contemporary world. This volume begins with four conceptual chapters, rich in examples from the past and present, which outline the theoretical foundations of dominant ethnicity. Two further sections present detailed case studies exploring dominant ethnicity in decline, transition and resurgence in North America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia." -- Cover.