One of the principal means of coping with cultural conflict in multicultural societies is adopting some form of indirect rule (Hechter 2000). The usual explanation for the ubiquity of this institution is the claim that people prefer to be ruled by members of their own cultural group than by aliens.

At the most basic level, alien rule exists whenever one or more culturally distinct groups are governed by individuals of a different cultural group. This description encompasses the legally distinct situations of colonialism, foreign occupation, and those multinational states whose discontented nations regard their rulers as alien. It also encompasses alien rule in smaller-scale organizations such as corporations, academic departments, and the family. Even so, this definition is even less straightforward than it seems because governance and cultural distinctiveness are contested terms. In this chapter, governance refers to administration – that is, management of the affairs of an organization, institution, or government.