This volume investigates the complex relationship between affirmative action policies, ethnic identity, and the potential for social conflict in multi-ethnic societies. Editors Edmund Terence Gomez and Ralph R. Premdas compile a series of scholarly analyses that examine how state-sponsored preferential policies influence inter-group dynamics. The text evaluates whether such interventions mitigate historical inequalities or inadvertently exacerbate communal tensions by institutionalizing ethnic categories within the political and economic spheres.

Experts identify this work as a significant contribution to the study of ethnic politics and public policy. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the rigorous comparative approach employed by the contributors.