The ethnic Pandora's Box
Recognition Politics: Indigenous Rights and Ethnic Conflict in the Andes, Lorenza B Fontana, reviewed by Gavin O'Toole, 4 April 2023
Recognition Politics: Indigenous Rights and Ethnic Conflict in the Andes, Lorenza B Fontana, 2023, Cambridge University Press
The tale of Pandora’s Box has been interpreted in many ways, with some accounts hinting that the curiosity which made this mythological figure open the box originated in her belief that it contained blessings, not evils.
The same might be said of the box of reforms that have brought much-needed recognition to ethnic groups since the 1980s, and with it new political, social and territorial rights.
Although Recognition Politics is about Latin America, it is one of those rare works to come out of scholarship about this region that has global importance.
At the heart of this book lies a set of critically important questions that contemporary liberal democratic societies also find themselves grappling with in the here and now.
That is because many of the low-intensity, inter-communal conflicts between ethnic groups that have proliferated across the Andean region have the same point of origin: they are ultimately the product of a consensus. Gramsci would undoubtedly have much to say about this.
That consensus, which has spread like wildfire across Latin America since the 1980s, has its ideological origins in broader changes that can be traced back to democratisation, but also neoliberal multiculturalism, which spawned an entirely new outlook on ethnic rights.
The new consensus on the need to expand legal guarantees to ethnic minorities being forged at an international level chimed with particular relevance in this region. Empowered indigenous movements have since had singular success pushing governments to respond to demands for recognition, new rights and sometimes forms of self-government.
The result in some cases has been a new model of citizenship and statehood that contrasts with a former assimilationist paradigm prevailing in the region during the 20th century based on the “unifying” ideas of nationalism.
The new settlement has been built on the notion that the formalisation of differentiated rights for ethnic groups—sometimes in the form of new constitutional clauses, and institutionalised through new legal structures—is a precondition for social coexistence on peaceful and equal grounds. Some countries went further, declaring themselves ambitiously multicultural or “plurinational” and granting indigenous peoples new autonomy, representation, and access to social provisions.
Neoliberal orthodoxy has been surprisingly welcoming of this development, and some would argue has greatly encouraged it through international actors such as the World Bank, seeking surreptitiously to link democratisation with a capitalist agenda.
In Recognition Politics, however, Lorenza Fontana examines the other side of the story.
There has been a proliferation of conflicts, sometimes deadly, between peasants and indigenous peoples—groups identified along class and ethnic lines occupying remote rural areas characterised by poverty, marginalisation, environmental fragility and a colonial legacy.
She notes that, given their small scale, many of these occur off the radar of the news media, and writes: “Yet these conflicts deserve attention not only because of the negative impact they have on local communities, but also because they open up new and important questions in contemporary debates on equality and diversity.
“Why are groups that have peacefully cohabited for decades suddenly engaging in hostile and violent behaviours? What is the link between these conflicts and changes in collective self-identification, claim-making and rent-seeking dynamics? And how, in turn, are these changes driven by broader institutional, legal and policy reforms?”
While recognition reforms have undoubtedly empowered traditionally marginalised groups, and this has strengthened democratisation, these have sometimes come at an unforeseen social price.
Fontana points out that while mainstream progressive interpretation of the politics of recognition is that it offers more peaceful and inclusive arrangements in ethnically diverse societies, her research suggests it also contains the seeds of conflict. While it aims to improve social inclusion, under some conditions it can increase social differentiation, expand gaps between poor groups, reduce incentives to cooperate, and generate violence.
Although the author would probably be the first to point out that her focus applies strictly to the rural Andes, it can be stated with confidence that the developed liberal democracies are facing similar rhetorical, if not physical, conflicts engendered by similar phenomena.
As Fontana notes, economic globalisation has favoured the movement of people and at times this has increased social tensions in receiving societies—making it urgent for states to explore new diversity strategies.
There are no simple solutions to avoiding conflict as a result of recognition reforms, but the author is hopeful that they exist and recommends a more nuanced, thoughtful approach to this thorny issue, especially at the level of local governance and through more broadly redistributive policies.
She writes: “When zero-sum dynamics are at play, the post-recognition scenario is likely to be populated by winners and losers. Some measures can, however, be taken to prevent or moderate potential conflict. The most obvious is to refrain from evaluating the outcomes of recognition policies only with respect to those groups that directly benefit from recognition, and to introduce instead evaluation methods that include the broader social communities …
“Focusing on ethnic diversity was indeed an important step towards the redressing of long-standing discrimination rooted in the colonial past. But building a more inclusive society requires addressing different forms of stigmatisation, even those that have no direct colonial origin.”