Theoretical Bases and Institutional Design of Ethnic Impact Assessment
Way Sun, Yun-Hsiang Hsu*
Abstract
Eliminating ethnic discrimination, promoting equality, and sustaining prosperity are important policy goals for every country. “Ethnic Impact Assessment (EIA)” can serve as a policy tool to make those policy goals mainstream values by prioritizing budget, reforming related programs or legislative bills, and encouraging ethnic groups to engage in a constructive dialogue with each other on a regular basis. This study aims to review the theoretical base for EIA and to propose the institutional design for assessing the ethnic impact of mid- to long-term programs and legislative bills. Due to the shortage of ethnic legislation in our country, we begin with reviewing multi-culturalism and its policy in western countries. Then, we introduce the design of Public Sector Equality Duty and Equality Impact Assessment in the United Kingdoms and summarize key elements in international treaties. We come up with a checklist for EIA, with three dimensions and six indicators, using it to seek the opinions of academics and ethnic representatives. Policy recommendations for EIA and its design are made after consulting them. The limitation for this study is that fundamental issues such as historical cleavage and hatred cannot easily be solved, so sincere dialogues between ethnic groups are rare and hard to expect, which in turn makes EIA only superficial. We expect that a more intense, face-to-face interaction among different ethnic groups can be realized on this island so that the historical scars can be understood and true racial reconciliation will happen.
Keywords: ethnic impact assessment, ethnic development policy, public sector equality duty
* Way Sun, Dean & Distinguished Professor, The College of Hakka Studies / Graduate Institute of Law and Government, National Central University, email: waysun@cc.ncu.edu.tw.
Yun-Hsiang Hsu, Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Law and Government, National Central University, email: yhhsu@cc.ncu.edu.tw.