Ethnicity and politics in the Northwest Territories ...

• Main Author: Potts, Randall Charles
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Subjects: Northwest Territories
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0094052; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0094052

This study of politics in the Northwest Territories concentrates on the period from 1966 to 1976 and is organized around the central theme of ethnicity. While other approaches to politics in the N.W.T. are possible, that of political development has been rejected as inappropriate and that of dependence has been set aside in so far as possible to allow concentration on the internal political system in the N.W.T. This thesis attempts to establish that ethnicity is salient in politics in the N.W.T. and to describe the resulting implications for conflict regulation. Ethnic groups are defined as groups sharing a common set of values, beliefs, and goals, bound by kinship ties, and possessing a set of communal institutions separate and apart from those of other groups. If ethnicity is salient, then evidence should be found that critical issues deal with questions of scarcity, that conflict groups are organized along ethnic lines, and that problems of legitimacy arise from the tendency toward secession inherent ...