Nationalists tolerate out-group elites only when they endorse majority domination

Evidence

Buddhist nationalists are not averse to collaborating with Tamil politicians, provided the latter do not seek to rebel against the nationalist ideology. This explains the nationalists’ support for anti-LTTE Tamil parties and paramilitaries and for Tamils like the late foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. It is instructive that Kadirgamar almost never acknowledged the human rights violations committed against Tamils, even though he rarely missed an opportunity to promote his being Tamil, through which he sought to burnish the government’s image. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 325

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader question about whether threatened groups co-opt compliant out-group members to legitimize exclusionary ideology — echoes tokenism dynamics studied in intergroup relations literature. — connects to: Absorbing rival elites into the ruling bloc decapitates and neutralizes opposition; Threat-hardened nationalist forces punished accommodation of the out-group. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 128

Broader Connections

• Threat-hardened nationalist forces punished accommodation of the out-group. #complicates (0.80) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 128
• Absorbing rival elites into the ruling bloc decapitates and neutralizes opposition #expands (0.75)