Racial superiority is the belief that one race or ethnic group is superior to another. This can take several forms. When a position of racial superiority is adopted by a state (the machinery of government over a country, an abstract entity which operates within a set of defined borders) the effect can be catastrophic. It can lead to the supposedly superior ethnic group encouraging inferior groups to leave or simply expelling them from the country, a process known as 'ethnic cleansing', to 'purify# the country by ensuring that only one race is allowed to enjoy the benefits of being a member of said country. When minorities refuse to leave, as in the former Yugoslavia, ethnic cleansing can become genocide.