Integration and Apartness of Minority Groups as Reflected in Election Results.

Minority groups differ from one another, among other things, in the extent to which they are integrated into or apart from the societies to which they belong. The extent of this integration or apartness is reflected in the various ways in which the minorities differ from the rest of the population, such as in the effect of economic class upon voting. No minority group is ever completely integrated into its society, for complete integration is tantamount to the extinction of group identity. No minority group is ever completely apart, for the term "minority" implies the existence of a majority with which the minority forms a common society. The dimension of integration-apartness is related to but not identical with the dimension of assimilation. Assimilation refers to the replacement or modification of group characteristics as a consequence of out-group contacts. Integration refers to the extent a minority actually forms a part of the body politic of its society. Thus, German "non-Aryan" Christians were fully assimilated but, in the Third Reich, certainly not integrated into the German society. In general, the term "integration" is applicable at various levels of analysis. We talk of the integration of individuals into groupings, the integration of these groupings into further units, and the integration of these into larger units in turn. In the case of our study, individuals are more or less integrated into their respective minority groups, and these in turn are more or less integrated into their respective societies. We are concerned in this paper with developing a measure for the degree of integration of minority groups into their societies. The basic proposition of this paper is: The more apart a minority group is from its society, the more will it differ from that society as a whole in the effect of economic class upon voting. An analysis of the voting of two minorities in Central Europe illustrates the above proposition. This is followed by comments on minority group voting in the United States and Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]