Quotaism

Quotaism^[1][2][3] is the concept of organising society by a quota system, whether by racial, gender, language or another demographic attribute. The basic premise is to have demographics represented at all levels and aspects of the civilisation according to national statistics.

A quota system is often part of any Affirmative Action policies, but in those cases it is mainly used as an "target", within a single entity. Quotaism applies to the whole country and is enforced by legislation on all public and private entities.

Implementation

Brazil

• Higher Education – In 2012 the Brazilian government introduced legislation for federal universities, where spots are reserved according to the racial make-up of each Brazilian state.^[4]

India

• Reservation - a form of quota-based affirmative action directed by constitutional and statutory laws, a percentage of vacancies in government is reserved based on caste, tribe or gender.

• Higher Education - The University Grants Commission (UGC) provides financial assistance to universities/colleges which adopts a reservation policy for admissions and recruitment.^[5]

• Sports Quota - Sport ability can be a criteria for being hired for none-sports positions.^[6]

South Africa

Local trade unions commonly use the term "Absolute representation" in this regard.^[7]

• BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) – Companies are scored based on the quota of black ownership, senior managers, training, as well as suppliers. These scores then translate into their ability to compete for government tenders.

• Affirmative Action – The SAPS (South African Police Service) operates a quota system policy for hiring and promotion. Positions will be left unfilled if the appropriate demographic candidate cannot be recruited, even if another qualified person is available.^[8][9]

• University Enrolment – First year students are registered on a racial quota basis. In some cases there are different admission requirements for different demographics. For example; to study medicine at the University of Cape Town (UCT), white and Indian students require at least a 78% average on their National Senior Certificate, whereas black students only requires 59%.^[10]

• Sport - Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula plans to impose quota systems in athletics, cricket, football, netball and rugby.^[11]

Criticism

Quota distribution doesn’t necessarily fit the real composition of the population;

• one demographic may have a higher degree of higher education than another,
• a region/town may have a higher percentage of a certain demographic than the national average for that group.^[12]

It's impossible to keep to a quota system in equilibrium as the demographics are continually changing. Most Quota systems are based on national census data which is only done once every 10 year.

Leaving positions unfilled in state departments have a negative effect on service delivery. This is a very serious concern when applied in police forces of countries with high crime figures. This can also lead to slow economic growth and social mobility pigeonholing.

Quota systems have a discriminative effect on minorities;

• Where fewer staff members are required, minorities may not be represented at all. For example; the South-African Indian population only make out 3% of the total population. If only 10 senior managers are required, Indian representation would be calculated as 0.3 of a staff member. This may be round down to the zero.^[13]
• Minorities may be forced out of their communities as the local quota may already be oversubscribed.

Only elite members of the majority demographic t benefits. The higher educated are artificially higher in demand due to under-subscription and can mandate higher than average salaries. The politically connected are given multiple directors’ position.^[14]

It interferes with a person’s basic human rights - freedom of choice.

See also

• Jewish quota

References