Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa
This paper draws on data from over 35,000 respondents in twenty-two public opinion surveys in ten countries and finds strong evidence that ethnic identities in Africa are strengthened by exposure to political competition. In particular, for every month closer their country is to a competitive pre...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Wiley Blackwell
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/71983 |
| _version_ | 1826203549135011840 |
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| author | Eifert, Benn Miguel, Edward Posner, Daniel N. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science Eifert, Benn Miguel, Edward Posner, Daniel N. |
| author_sort | Eifert, Benn |
| collection | MIT |
| description | This paper draws on data from over 35,000 respondents in twenty-two public opinion
surveys in ten countries and finds strong evidence that ethnic identities in Africa are strengthened
by exposure to political competition. In particular, for every month closer their country is to a
competitive presidential election, survey respondents are 1.8 percentage points more likely to
identify in ethnic terms. Using an innovative multinomial logit empirical methodology, we find
that these shifts are accompanied by a corresponding reduction in the salience of occupational
and class identities. Our findings lend support to situational theories of social identification and
are consistent with the view that ethnic identities matter in Africa for instrumental reasons:
because they are useful in the competition for political power. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:39:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/71983 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:39:06Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Wiley Blackwell |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/719832022-09-28T09:13:08Z Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa Eifert, Benn Miguel, Edward Posner, Daniel N. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science Posner, Daniel N. Posner, Daniel N. Posner, Daniel N. This paper draws on data from over 35,000 respondents in twenty-two public opinion surveys in ten countries and finds strong evidence that ethnic identities in Africa are strengthened by exposure to political competition. In particular, for every month closer their country is to a competitive presidential election, survey respondents are 1.8 percentage points more likely to identify in ethnic terms. Using an innovative multinomial logit empirical methodology, we find that these shifts are accompanied by a corresponding reduction in the salience of occupational and class identities. Our findings lend support to situational theories of social identification and are consistent with the view that ethnic identities matter in Africa for instrumental reasons: because they are useful in the competition for political power. 2012-08-06T14:59:57Z 2012-08-06T14:59:57Z 2010-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0092-5853 1540-5907 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/71983 Eifert, Benn, Edward Miguel, and Daniel N. Posner. “Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa.” American Journal of Political Science 54.2 (2010): 494-510. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2010.00443.x American Journal of Political Science Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf Wiley Blackwell Posner |
| spellingShingle | Eifert, Benn Miguel, Edward Posner, Daniel N. Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa |
| title | Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa |
| title_full | Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa |
| title_fullStr | Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa |
| title_short | Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa |
| title_sort | political competition and ethnic identification in africa |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/71983 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT eifertbenn politicalcompetitionandethnicidentificationinafrica AT migueledward politicalcompetitionandethnicidentificationinafrica AT posnerdanieln politicalcompetitionandethnicidentificationinafrica |