scholarly journals Ethnolinguistic Favoritism in African Politics

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 370-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Dickens
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Continuous Measure ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Group I ◽  
National Leaders ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
High Level ◽  
Shed Light

African political leaders have a tendency to favor members of their own ethnic group. Yet for all other ethnic groups in a country, it is unclear whether having a similar ethnicity to the leader is beneficial. To shed light on this issue, I use a continuous measure of linguistic similarity to quantify the ethnic similarity of a leader to all ethnic groups in a country. Combined with panel data on 163 ethnic groups partitioned across 35 sub-Saharan countries, I use within-group time variation in similarity that results from a partitioned group's concurrent exposure to multiple national leaders. Findings show that ethnic favoritism is more widespread than previously believed: in addition to evidence of coethnic favoritism, I document evidence of non-coethnic favoritism that typically goes undetected in the absence of a continuous measure of similarity. I also find that patronage tends to be targeted toward ethnic regions rather than individuals of a particular ethnic group. I relate these results to the literature on coalition building and provide evidence that ethnicity is one of the guiding principles behind high-level government appointments. (JEL D72, J15, O15, O17, Z13)

Ethnic inequality and coups in sub-Saharan Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Houle ◽  
Cristina Bodea
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Ethnic Inequality ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Coups D'etat ◽  
Group Inequality

Does ethnic inequality breed coups? The recent literature on civil war shows both that inequality between ethnic groups induces war and, importantly, that civil wars and coups, although fundamentally different, are related. The literature on coups d’état, however, has yet to theorize and test the effect of ethnic inequality on coups. The link is plausible because many coups are ‘ethnic coups’, which depend on the capacity of plotters to mobilize their co-ethnics. We argue that large income and wealth disparities between ethnic groups accompanied by within-group homogeneity increase the salience of ethnicity and solidify within-group preferences vis-à-vis the preferences of other ethnic groups, increasing the appeal and feasibility of a coup. We use group-level data for 32 sub-Saharan African countries and 141 ethnic groups between 1960 and 2005 and provide the first large-N test to date of the effect of ethnic inequality on coups. Between- and within-group inequality measures are constructed based on survey data from the Afrobarometer and the Demographic and Health Surveys. We find strong support for our hypothesis: between-ethnic-group inequality (BGI) increases the likelihood that an ethnic group stages a coup only when within-ethnic-group inequality (WGI) is low. Coups remain frequent in sub-Saharan Africa and coups are the main threat to democracy in the region, by harming democratic consolidation and economic development, and by provoking further political instability. Our work provides a novel rationale to be concerned about ethnic inequality, showing that when ethnic and income cleavages overlap, destabilizing coups d’état are more likely.

Ugandan relations with Western donors in the 1990s: what impact on democratisation?

1999 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Hauser
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Success Story ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Donor Support ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
High Level

Aid donors' support for democratisation in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s has been tempered by their desire to achieve other objectives. In Uganda, a high level of donor support for the Museveni government has been compatible with the Ugandan government's reluctance to introduce multiparty democracy. Donors have opted for ‘dialogue’ rather than coercive methods. This may be ascribed to a number of factors, including the destruction from which Uganda was recovering, the need to present Uganda as a success story for economic liberalisation, and donors' need to maintain good relations with Uganda in order to pursue their foreign policy goals. The resulting donor–recipient relationship has however created dangers for the maintenance of long-term sustainable democracy in Uganda, by condoning divisive policies, and neglecting the need for coalition-building and conflict resolution.

Visual media and political communication: reporting about suffering in Kinshasa

2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrien Pype
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Television News ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Visual Aesthetics ◽  
National Leaders ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Political Act

ABSTRACTMany sub-Saharan African societies have undergone significant political shifts in the last two decades. Changes in political representation and leadership have generated new forms of political mediation and communication. This article interrogates one of the most visible transformations in Kinshasa's political society: television news reports about urban misery, often resulting from a malfunctioning state, in which Kinshasa's inhabitants testify about their difficulties and press fellow citizens, as well as local and national leaders, to bring about change. Exposing suffering is a shame mobilisation strategy, and so becomes a political act. Through the discursive and visual aesthetics of the proximity account, citizens and political leaders are inserted into one political community. The main argument of this article is that the proximity account illustrates a new kind of political communication. In this article I analyse the socio-political contexts in which the proximity report emerged and became popular. I trace the materialisation of this new kind of interaction between political leaders and citizens to the transformation of the late Zaïrian ‘state’, to vernacular understandings of ‘democracy’, and to the influence of NGO activities and Pentecostal Christianity.

scholarly journals The Politics of Ethnic Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 001041402097022
Author(s):  
Elliott Green
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Presidential Transitions ◽  
Group I ◽  
Sub Saharan

Recent literature suggests that African Presidents tend to target co-ethnics with patronage, especially in non-democracies. Coupled with evidence on the role of incentives in driving ethnic identity change, I propose that a change in the ethnic identity of the President should lead to an increase in the proportion of people identifying with the President’s ethnic group. I use survey data from fourteen African countries with Presidential transitions to show that ethnic Presidential change leads to an upwards shift in the percentage of respondents identifying with the new ruling ethnic group in non-democracies, and that this shift increases with the level of autocracy. I also show that countries where citizens perceive more ethnic favoritism see higher levels of ethnic switching. Within-survey evidence from Zambia demonstrates that this shift is immediate, and case study evidence from early modern China suggests that this phenomenon is not limited to Sub-Saharan Africa.

ETHNICITY AND CONTRACEPTIVE USE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: THE CASE OF GHANA

1999 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
ISAAC ADDAI
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Contraceptive Use ◽  
Married Women ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Significant Determinant ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Sub Saharan

Using a sub-sample of ever-married women from the 1993 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), this study examines differentials in contraceptive use in six cultural groups: Ga-Adangbe, Twi, Fante/other Akans, Ewe, Guan/others and Mole-Dagbani. Multivariate analysis is used to explore whether reported ethnic differentials in contraceptive use can be attributed to ethnicity or to other characteristics that distinguish the ethnic groups. Overall, the findings are generally more consistent with the 'characteristics' hypothesis, because contraceptive use differentials by ethnic group is accounted for by differences in socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of these women. However, for the Fante/other Akans, even after the necessary controls, ethnicity continued to emerge as a significant determinant of contraceptive use. Programmatic implications of these results are discussed.

The Inscriptions on the Gravestones in the Croatian Villages of Slovakia, Chunovo and Jarovce: The Specificity of Mixing Graphics Systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 159-173
Author(s):  
Darya Yu. Vashchenko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Funerary Monuments ◽  
Traditional Spelling ◽  
The Family ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Village

The article discusses the inscriptions on funerary monuments from the Croatian villages of Cunovo and Jarovce, located in the South of Slovakia, near Bratislava. These inscriptions reflect the complicated sociocultural situation in the region, which is particularly specific due to the fact that this territory was included to Slovakia’s territory only after 1946, while earlier the village was part of Hungary. In addition, the local Croatian ethnic group was actively in close contact with the German and Hungarian communities. At the same time, the orthographic norms of the literary Croatian, German, Hungarian, and Slovak languages, which could potentially be owned by the authors of the inscriptions, differ in many ways, despite the Latin alphabet used on all the gravestones. All this is reflected in the tombstones, representing a high degree of mixing codes. The article identifies the main types of fusion on the monuments: separate orthograms, writing the maiden name of the deceased in the spelling of her native language, the traditional spelling of the family name. In addition, the mixing of codes can be associated with writing feminitives, also order of name and surname within the anthroponym. Moreover, the settlements themselves represent different ethnic groups coexistence within the village. Gravestones from the respective cemeteries also differ from each other in the nature of the prevailing trend of the mixing codes. In Jarovce, where the ethnic groups live compactly, fusion is often presented as a separate foreign language orthograms. In Cunovo, where the ethnic groups constitute a global conglomerate, more traditional presents for a specific family spelling of the names on the monument.

Attentional capture helps explain why moral and emotional content go viral

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Brady ◽  
Ana P. Gantman ◽  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Emotional Content ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Psychological Process ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Lab Experiments ◽  
Perceptual Systems ◽  
Shed Light

Our social media newsfeeds are filled with a variety of content all battling for our limited attention. Across three studies, we investigated whether moral and emotional content captures our attention more than other content and if this may help explain why this content is more likely to go viral online. Using a combination of controlled lab experiments and nearly 50,000 political tweets, we found that moral and emotional content are prioritized in early visual attention more than neutral content, and that such attentional capture is associated with increased retweets during political conversations online. Furthermore, we found that the differences in attentional capture among moral and emotional stimuli could not be fully explained by differences in arousal. These studies suggest that attentional capture is one basic psychological process that helps explain the increased diffusion of moral and emotional content during political discourse on social media, and shed light on ways in which political leaders, disinformation profiteers, marketers, and activist organizations can spread moralized content by capitalizing on natural tendencies of our perceptual systems.

MENAFSIRKAN TEKS SASTRA LISAN BADAMPIANG SEBAGAI UPAYA MEMAKNAI WARISAN BUDAYA BANGSA

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Krisnawati Krisnawati
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Oral Tradition

Minangkabau ethnic group, as other ethnic groups in Indonesia, has many kinds of cultural heritages. Among other is Badampiang, an oral tradition. Badampiang (acting of accompanying) is mutually responding poetry (berbalas pantun) by the time accompanying a groom to a bride’s house to do the procession of wedding. This tradition is currently threatened to extinct, whereas in fact, it has many positive values which are deserved to be inherited to the next generations. Thus, it is important to do a research on Badampiang. This paper discussed about the speakers, the music instruments, the place, the time and the condition of Badampiang utterances. Besides, this paper also discussed the meaning contained in the text of Badampiang. The method used to investigate the tradition of Badampiang is hermeneutics method and theory of values. Therefore, the various elements that exist can be found so that badampiang will realize and the values that contained in the oral tradition.AbstrakSuku bangsa Minangkabau, sebagaimana suku bangsa lainnya di Indonesia, memiliki berbagai warisan budaya. Di antara warisan budaya tersebut adalah tradisi lisan badampiang. Badampiang (melakukan pendampingan) adalah berbalas pantun ketika mendampingi mempelai laki-laki menuju rumah mempelai perempuan ketika hendak melakukan ijab kabul (pernikahan). Tradisi lisan badampiang saat ini terancam punah digerus waktu, padahal banyak nilai positif dalam teks badampiang yang layak diwariskan kepada generasi penerus. Oleh sebab itu, kajian terhadap badampiang sangat penting dilakukan. Melalui makalah ini dibahas pedendang, alat musik pengiring, tempat, waktu, dan suasana pedendangan badampiang. Selain itu, dibahas pula makna yang terkandung dalam teks badampiang. Metode yang digunakan untuk mengkaji tradisi lisan ini adalah metode hermeneutika dan teori tentang nilai-nilai. Dengan demikian, terlihatlah berbagai unsur yang ada sehingga badampiang terwujud dan nilai-nilai yang terkandung dalam tradisi lisan tersebut.

Validation of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire with three Chinese ethnic groups

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Du
Keyword(s):  
Gender Difference ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Influential Factor ◽  
Moral Foundations ◽  
Moral Foundations Theory

Moral foundations theory is claimed to be universally applicable and is classified into 5 foundations of morality: care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, respect/subversion, and purity/degradation. This theory has not been tested in the Eastern cultural context. Therefore, in this study I addressed this lack in the context of China, where there are people of a number of different ethnicities. I adopted the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, which was completed by 761 Chinese of Han, Uygur, and Tibetan ethnicity. The results show that there was no gender difference in morality foundation scores, but the differences among ethnic groups were significant: Tibetans scored lower than did Han and Uygur in care and fairness, and Uygur scored higher than Han and Tibetans did in loyalty, respect, and purity. The interactions between gender and ethnic group were significant for care, fairness, and respect. These findings suggest that moral foundations theory is applicable to China, that the Moral Foundations Questionnaire can also be partially applied to Chinese, and that ethnicity is an influential factor when people make moral judgments.

A Wolf in the City

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cinzia Arruzza
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
The City ◽  
Shed Light

A Wolf in the City is a study of tyranny and of the tyrant’s soul in Plato’s Republic. It argues that Plato’s critique of tyranny is an intervention in an ancient debate concerning the sources of the crisis of Athenian democracy and the relation between political leaders and the demos in the last decades of the fifth century BCE. The book shows that Plato’s critique of tyranny should not be taken as a veiled critique of the Syracusan tyrannical regime but, rather, as an integral part of his critique of Athenian democracy. The book also offers an in-depth and detailed analysis of all three parts of the tyrant’s soul, and contends that this approach is necessary to both fully appraise the complex psychic dynamics taking place in the description of the tyrannical man and shed light on Plato’s moral psychology and its relation with his political theory.

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