Dogla politics? Questioning ethnic consociationalism in Suriname's national elections of 25 May 2010

Bibliographic Data

ID2146387
AuthorsIris Marchand (corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume37
Issue2
Pages342-362
Publication date2014-01-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnic and Racial Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-9870 • E-ISSN: 1466-4356
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01419870.2012.720692
OpenAlexW2004980861
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited9

This paper asks to what extent Suriname's consociational democracy still rests on its historically shaped meta-ideology of ethnic essentialism. Based on ethnographic data of the country's national elections in 2010, I suggest that the 'ethnic taboo' of ethnic mobilization by politicians was present to a certain extent. However, this taboo was challenged by the nationalist turn of Desi Bouterse's National Democratic Party. Furthermore, when considering voting behaviour and that of ethnically mixed Doglas in particular, we see that Surinamese politics is more complex. I will argue that while we have been thinking about Surinamese politics as being on a par with ethnic groupings, these 2010 elections were not simply about ethnicity. Ethnicity may have informed but did not fully explain people's political choices, because people are too complex to be captured in an exclusively ethnic category, and because the Surinamese political system is too complex to maintain clear ethnic categories

Democracy · Ethnic group · Ethnic nationalism · Ideology · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Taboo · Voting · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law

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