Democratically elected leaders of different culture

Upvote:4

The question rests on a false assumption - that "country" can be tied to "ethnicity". There are a few countries that make an effort at racial purity, but I think that the concept has fallen by the wayside.

There is a second flaw in the question. "Democratically elected" means "elected by those we choose to have the franchise" - Generally this excludes women, minorities, and aboriginal inhabitants. If I recall correctly, nearly every election held in South Carolina until 1866 disenfranchised the majority of the population, so every elected official in South Carolina during that period would fit your definition. As would every elected official in Rome (which is why I cite Nerva below)

The third flaw is that the knee jerk response to some of the examples below is to deny that they don't represent distinct ethnic groups. D'israeli is a good example - I don't recall that he ever referred to himself as Jewish, but his contemporaries identified him as Jewish.

  • Rome - Nerva - first Italian Emperor (loosely speaking, still elected; the Romans would have argued that the Italians were ethnically different).
  • USA-
    • Washington (At least from the Native American viewpoint, he was a departure from the founding ethnicity) - and as I point out above, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson were all elected despite being of foreign birth and ethnicity.
    • Martin van Buren (First President of Dutch descent, and I believe first President not of English descent). However he was the first President who was born a US citizen. (Take that Birthers!)
    • Kennedy (Irish Catholic)
    • Obama (African American)
  • England - Disraeli (Jewish)
  • South Africa - De Klerk (Not a member of the majority population)
  • Guadalupe Victoria -President of Mexico, born in New Spain; I believe his ethnicity was Spanish rather than Mexican.
  • Ahmed Ben Bella - first President of Algeria, his parents were Morrocan, but legally he was born a Frenchman.
  • Belgium Elio Di Rupo - trick question since Belgium contains two distinct ethnic groups, EVERY Prime minister of Belgium rules over a country including an ethnicity not his own. Mr. Di Rupo is the first Francophone in quite a while
  • India - EVERY elected rule of India rules over a variety of ethnicities not his or her own.

Upvote:5

I don't know if you meant complete democratic examples, but Alberto Fujimori is a pretty famous example of your request, he lead Peru a little longer than ten years, as he has been elected enacted neo-liberal reforms, then after a crisis his system turned into a nightmare.

In US, Obama could be an example if the US itself wouldn't be heterogenous already.

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