Ethnic Politics

Readings

[VC] = Taught by Professor Volha Charnysh

[EL] = Taught by Professor Evan Lieberman

Session 1: Introduction: Scholarly and substantive motivation for the study of ethnic politics and some overview of the field [EL]

• Segura, Gary M., and Helena Alves Rodrigues. 2006. “Comparative Ethnic Politics in the United States: Beyond Black and White.” Annual Review of Political Science 9 (1): 375–395.
• Kalin, Michael, and Nicholas Sambanis. 2018. “How to Think About Social Identity.” Annual Review of Political Science 21 (1): 239–57.
• Lamont, Michèle, and Virág Molnár. 2002. “The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences.” Annual Review of Sociology 28 (1): 167–95.
• Brady, Henry E., and Cynthia S. Kaplan. 2009. “Conceptualizing and Measuring Ethnic Identity.” In Measuring Identity: A Guide for Social Scientists, eds. Rawi Abdelal, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Alastair Iain Johnston, and Rose McDermott. Cambridge University Press, 33–71. [Preview with Google Books]
• Helbling, Marc. 2020. “Attitudes Towards Climate Change Migrants.” (PDF) Climatic Change 160 (1): 89–102.
• McClendon, Gwyneth, and Rachel Beatty Riedl. 2015. “Religion as a Stimulant of Political Participation: Experimental Evidence from Nairobi, Kenya.” The Journal of Politics 77 (4): 1045–57.

Session 2: What is it? Concepts and definitions [EL]

• Horowitz, Donald L. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. University of California Press,  ch.1 (just focus on pp. 3–32; and 51–54). [Preview with Google Books]
• Chandra, Kanchan. 2006. “What Is Ethnic Identity and Does It Matter?” Annual Review of Political Science 9 (June): 397–424.
• Brubaker, Rogers. 2002. “Ethnicity Without Groups.” Archives européennes de sociologie 43 (2): 163–189.
• Varshney, Ashutosh. 2003. “Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict, and Rationality.” Perspectives on Politics 1 (1): 85–99.
• Sen, Maya, and Omar Wasow. 2016. “Race as a Bundle of Sticks: Designs That Estimate the Effects of Seemingly Immutable Characteristics.” Annual Review of Political Science 19 (May): 499–522.
• Boone, Catherine. 2024. “Region and Regionalism in African Politics,” Chapter 2 in Inequality and Political Cleavage in Africa: Regionalism by Design. Cambridge University Press, 25–47. [Preview with Google Books]

Recommended Reading

• Edward Telles. 2004. Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil. Princeton University Press, 78–106. [Preview with Google Books]

Session 3: Research tools for the study of ethnic politics [VC]

• Bochsler, Daniel, Elliott Green, Erin Jenne, Harris Mylonas, and Andreas Wimmer. 2021. “Exchange on the Quantitative Measurement of Ethnic and National Identity.” Nations and Nationalism 27 (1): 22–40. 

The following seven readings are divided between students and will be presented in class. Choose an article from the list (we are aiming for two students per article). The goal is to introduce the new tools/innovations to the class (no slides). 8–10 min. of presentation followed by Q&A. 

Questions to cover: 

• What problem does the article address?
• What innovation—conceptual, methodological, etc.—does it offer?
• How does using this new tool/approach (might) change our understanding of political phenomena?
• Do you find the proposed tool/concept/approach useful? How/when do you see yourself using this tool?
• What issues remain unresolved (in the research area that this tool is speaking to)?

1. McDoom, Omar Shahabudin, and Rachel M. Gisselquist. 2016. “The Measurement of Ethnic and Religious Divisions: Spatial, Temporal, and Categorical Dimensions with Evidence from Mindanao, the Philippines.” Social Indicators Research 129 (2): 863–891.
2. Wong, Cara, Jake Bowers, Tarah Williams, and Katherine Simmons. 2012. “Bringing the Person Back In: Boundaries, Perceptions, and the Measurement of Racial Context.” Journal of Politics 74 (4): 1153–70.
3. Bonikowski, Bart, and Paul DiMaggio. 2016. “Varieties of American Popular Nationalism.” American Sociological Review 81 (5): 949–980.
4. Eubank, Nicholas. 2019. “Social Networks and the Political Salience of Ethnicity.” (PDF) Quarterly Journal of Political Science 14 (1): 1–39.
5. Blum, Ashley, Chad Hazlett, and Daniel Posner. 2021. “Measuring Ethnic Bias: Can Misattribution-Based Tools from Social Psychology Reveal Group Biases That Economics Games Cannot?” Political Analysis 29 (3): 385–404.
6. Chaturvedi, Rochana, and Sugat Chaturvedi. 2023. “It’s All in the Name: A Character-Based Approach to Infer Religion.” Political Analysis, March, 1–16. [also see earlier paper in recommended section by Harris, 2015]
7. Argyle, Lisa P., and Michael Barber. 2023. “Misclassification and Bias in Predictions of Individual Ethnicity from Administrative Records.” American Political Science Review, May, 1–9 [also see earlier paper in recommended section by Imai and Khanna, 2017]

Book Reviews

• Roeder, Peter G. “Nation Building: Why Some Countries Come Together While Others Fall Apart by Andreas Wimmer. Princeton University Press, 2018.” Perspectives on Politics. 2020; 18 (1): 221–223.
• Djupe, Paul A. “Religion and Nationalism in Global Perspective. by J. Christopher Soper and Joel S. Fetzer. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.”  Perspectives on Politics 2019; 17(4): 1235–1237.

Recommended Readings

• Wimmer, Andreas, Lars-Erik Cederman, and Brian Min. 2009. “Ethnic Politics and Armed Conflict: A Configurational Analysis of a New Global Data Set.” American Sociological Review 74 (2): 316–37.
• Marquardt, Kyle L., and Yoshiko M. Herrera. 2015. “Ethnicity as a Variable: An Assessment of Measures and Data Sets of Ethnicity and Related Identities.” Social Science Quarterly 96 (3): 689–716.
• Harris, J. Andrew. 2015. “What’s in a Name? A Method for Extracting Information About Ethnicity from Names.” Political Analysis 23 (2): 212–224.
• Niklas Harder, Lucila Figueroa, Rachel M. Gillum, Dominik Hangartner, David D. Laitin, and Jens Hainmueller. 2018. “Multidimensional Measure of Immigrant Integration.” PNAS 115 (45): 11483–88.
• Müller-Crepon, Carl, Yannick Pengl, and Nils-Christian Bormann. 2022. “Linking Ethnic Data from Africa (LEDA).” Journal of Peace Research 59 (3): 425–35.
• Abrajano, Marisa, Christopher S. Elmendorf, and Kevin M. Quinn. 2018. “Labels vs. Pictures: Treatment-Mode Effects in Experiments About Discrimination.” Political Analysis. 27 (1): 20–33.
• Imai, Kosuke, and Kabir Khanna. 2017. “Improving Ecological Inference by Predicting Individual Ethnicity from Voter Registration Records.” Political Analysis 24 (2): 263–372.
• Butler, Daniel M., and Jonathan Homola. 2017. “An Empirical Justification for the Use of Racially Distinctive Names to Signal Race in Experiments.” Political Analysis 25 (1): 122–130.
• Henderson, John, Jasjeet S. Sekhon, and Rocio Titiunik. 2017. “Cause or Effect? Turnout in Hispanic Majority-Minority Districts.” Political Analysis 24 (3): 404–412.
• Gichoya, Judy, et al. “AI Recognition of Patient Race in Medical Imaging: A Modelling Study.” 2022. Lancet 4: e406–414.

Session 4: The origins of diversity and ethnic salience [VC]

• Van Evera, Stephen. 2001. “Primordialism Lives!” (PDF) APSA-CP: Newsletter of the Organized Section in Comparative Politics of the American Political Science Association 12 (1): 20–22.
• Michaloupoulous, Stelios. 2012. “The Origins of Ethnolinguistic Diversity.” American Economic Review 102 (4): 1508–39.
• Kuran, Timur. 1998. “Ethnic Norms and Their Transformation Through Reputational Cascades.” Journal of Legal Studies 27 (S2): 623–659.
• Yannick I. Pengl, Philip Roessler, and Valeria Rueda. 2021. “Cash Crops, Print Technologies, and the Politicization of Ethnicity in Africa.” American Political Science Review 116 (1):  1–19.
• Posner, Daniel. 2004. “The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi.” American Political Science Review 98 (4): 529–545.
• Roth, Wendy. 2018. “Unsettled Identities amid Settled Classifications? Toward a Sociology of Racial Appraisals.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 41 (6): 1093–1112.
• Dahis, Ricardo, Emily Nix, and Nancy Qian. 2019. “Choosing Racial Identity in the United States, 1880–1940.” (PDF) NBER Working paper 26465.

Recommended Reading

• Hadzic, Dino, David Carlson, and Margit Tavits. 2017. “How Exposure to Violence Affects Ethnic Voting.” BJPolS 50: 345–362.

Session 5: The psychology of prejudice [VC]

• Cikara, Mina, Matthew M. Botvinick, and Susan T. Fiske. 2011. “Us Versus Them: Social Identity Shapes Neural Responses to Intergroup Competition and Harm.” Psychological Science 22 (3): 306–313.
• Enos, Ryan D. 2016. “What the Demolition of Public Housing Teaches Us About the Impact of Racial Threat on Political Behavior.” American Journal of Political Science 60 (1): 123–142.
• Adida, Claire, Jessica Gottlieb, Eric Kramon and Gwyneth McClendon. 2017. “Reducing or Reinforcing In-Group Preferences? An Experiment on Information and Ethnic Voting.” (PDF) Quarterly Journal of Political Studies 12 (4): 437–477.
• Valentino, Nicholas A., Vincent L. Hutchings, and Ismail K. White. 2002. “Cues That Matter: How Political Ads Prime Racial Attitudes During Campaigns.” American Political Science Review 96 (1): 75–90.
• Fouka, Vasiliki, and Marco Tabellini. 2022. “Changing In-Group Boundaries: The Effect of Immigration on Race Relations in the United States.” American Political Science Review 116 (3): 968–84.
• Baker, Andrew. 2015. “Race, Paternalism, and Foreign Aid: Evidence from U.S. Public Opinion.” American Political Science Review 109 (1): 93–109.

Recommended Readings

• Choi, Donghyun Danny, Mathias Poertner, and Nicholas Sambanis. 2023. “Temperature and Outgroup Discrimination.” Political Science Research and Methods 11: 198–206.
• Brewer, Marilynn B. 1999. “The Psychology of Prejudice: Ingroup Love or Outgroup Hate?” Journal of Social Issues 55 (3): 429–444.

Session 6: How institutions shape identities and ethnic relations [EL]

• Acharya, Avidit, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen. 2018. Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics. Vol. 6. Princeton University Press, Chap. 1, 3. [Preview with Google Books]
• Jha, Saumitra. 2013. “Trade, Institutions, and Ethnic Tolerance: Evidence from South Asia.” American Political Science Review 107 (4): 806–832.
• Lieberman, Evan, and Prerna Singh. 2012. “Conceptualizing and Measuring Ethnic Politics: An Institutional Complement to Demographic, Behavioral, and Cognitive Approaches.” Studies in Comparative International Development 47 (3): 255–86.
• King, Elisabeth, and Cyrus Samii. 2018. “Minorities and Mistrust: On the Adoption of Ethnic Recognition to Manage Conflict.” Journal of Peace Research 55 (3): 289–304.
• Marx, Anthony W. 1996. “Race-Making and the Nation-State.” World Politics 48 (2): 180–208.

Recommended Readings

• Leonhardt, David. “A Political Misdiagnosis,” New York Times, October 14, 2024.
• Reynolds, Andrew. 1995. “Constitutional Engineering in Southern Africa.” Journal of Democracy 6 (1): 86–99.
• Tillin, Louise. 2017. “India’s Democracy at 70: The Federalist Compromise.” Journal of Democracy 28 (3): 64–75.

Session 7: Explaining the rise of nations, nationalism [VC]

• Mylonas, Harris, and Maya Tudor. 2021. “Nationalism: What We Know and What We Still Need to Know.” Annual Review of Political Science 24: 109–132.
• Darden, Keith. 2013. Resisting Occupation: Mass Schooling and the Creation of Durable National Loyalties. [Book Manuscript]. Chap. 1. (PDF)
• Wimmer, Andreas, Seungwon Lee, and Jack LaViolette. 2025. “Diffusion Through Multiple Domains: The Spread of Romantic Nationalism Across Europe, 1770–1930.” American Journal of Sociology 130 (4): 931–975.
• Robinson, Amanda. 2014. “National Versus Ethnic Identification in Africa: Modernization, Colonial Legacy, and the Origins of Territorial Nationalism.” World Politics 66 (4): 709–746.
• Soehl, Thomas, and Sakeef M. Karim. 2021. “How Legacies of Geopolitical Trauma Shape Popular Nationalism Today.” (PDF) American Sociological Review 86(3): 406–29.
• Rosenzweig, L. R., and Y.-Y. Zhou. 2021. “Team and Nation: Sports, Nationalism, and Attitudes Toward Refugees.” Comparative Political Studies 54 (12): 2123–2154.

Recommended Readings

• Hechter, Michael. 2000. Containing Nationalism. Oxford University Press, Chap. 1–2. [Preview with Google Books]
• Wimmer, Andreas. 2018. Nation Building: Why Some Countries Come Together While Others Fall Apart. Princeton University Press, 1–44. [Preview with Google Books]
• Mylonas, Harris. 2013. The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities. Cambridge University Press, Introduction and Chap. 2. [Preview with Google Books]
• Tamir, Yael. 2019. “Not So Civic: Is There a Difference Between Ethnic and Civic Nationalism?” Annual Review of Political Science 22: 419–434.
• Anderson, Benedict. 2006. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New ed. Verso, 1–7. [Preview with Google Books]

Session 8: Group attachment, sacrifice, and state-building (EL) 

• Charnysh, Volha, Christopher Lucas, and Prerna Singh. 2015. “The Ties That Bind: National Identity Salience and Pro-Social Behavior Toward the Ethnic Other.” Comparative Political Studies 48 (3): 267–300.
• Rapp, Carolin Hjort. 2022. “The Bond That Binds or Drives Us Apart? An Empirical Test of the National Identity Argument in Three Countries.” European Political Science Review 14 (3): 296–314.
• Transue, John E. 2007. “Identity Salience, Identity Acceptance, and Racial Policy Attitudes: American National Identity as a Uniting Force.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (1): 78–91.
• Miguel, Edward. 2004. “Tribe or Nation? Nation Building and Public Goods in Kenya Versus Tanzania.” World Politics 56 (3): 327–362.
• Hur, Aram. 2020. “Citizen Duty and the Ethical Power of Communities: Mixed-Method Evidence from East Asia.” British Journal of Political Science 50 (3): 1047–1065.
• Kasara, Kimuli. 2007. “Tax Me If You Can: Ethnic Geography, Democracy, and the Taxation of Agriculture in Africa.” American Political Science Review 101(1): 159–72.

Recommended Readings

• Lieberman, Evan. 2001. “National Political Community and the Politics of Income Taxation in Brazil and South Africa in the 20^th Century.” Politics and Society 29 (4): 515–555.
• ———. “The Politics of Demanding Sacrifice: Applying Insights from Fiscal Sociology to the Study of AIDS Policy and State Capacity.” In The New Fiscal Sociology: Taxation in Comparative and Historical Perspectives. Eds. Isaac Martin, Ajay Mehrotra, and Monica Prasad. Cambridge University Press, 105–119. 
• Shayo, Moses. 2009. “A Model of Social Identity with an Application to Political Economy: Nation, Class, and Redistribution.” American Political Science Review 103 (2): 147–174.

Session 9: Diversity, state capacity, and public goods provision [VC]

• Habyarimana, James, Macartan Humphreys, Daniel N. Posner, and Jeremy M. Weinstein. 2007. “Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision?” American Political Science Review 101 (4): 709–725.
• Lee, Alexander. 2018. “Ethnic Diversity and Ethnic Discrimination: Explaining Local Public Goods Provision.” Comparative Political Studies 51 (10): 1351–1383.
• Charnysh, Volha. 2019. “Diversity, Institutions, and Economic Outcomes: Post-WWII Displacement in Poland.” American Political Science Review 113 (12): 423–441.
• Xu, Alice. 2024. “Segregation and the Spatial Externalities of Inequality: A Theory of Interdependence and Public Goods in Cities.” American Political Science Review 118 (3): 1431–1448.
• Cruz, Cesi, Julien Labonne, and Pablo Querubin. 2020. “Social Network Structures and the Politics of Public Goods Provision: Evidence from the Philippines.” American Political Science Review 114 (2): 486–501. 
• Pardelli, Giuliana, and Alexander Kustov. 2022. “When Coethnicity Fails.” World Politics 74 (2): 249–284.

Recommended Readings

• Mantilla, Cesar et al. 2021. “Favoring Your In-group Can Harm Both Them and You: Ethnicity and Public Goods Provision in China.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 185: 211–233.  
• Post, Alison E., Vivian Bronsoler, and Lana Salman. 2017. “Hybrid Regimes for Local Public Goods Provision: A Framework for Analysis.” Perspectives on Politics 15 (4): 952–966.
• Alesina, Alberto, Caterina Gennaioli, and Stefania Lovo. 2019. “Public Goods and Ethnic Diversity: Evidence from Deforestation in Indonesia.” Economica 86 (341): 32–66.
• Bandiera, Oriana, and Gilat Levy. 2011. “Diversity and the Power of the Elites in Democratic Societies: Evidence from Indonesia.” Journal of Public Economics 95 (11–12): 1322–1330.
• Rugh, Jacob, and Jessica Trounstine. 2011. “The Provision of Local Public Goods in Diverse Communities: Analyzing Municipal Bond Elections.” Journal of Politics 73 (4): 1038–1050.
• Baldwin, Kate, and John Huber. 2010. “Economic Versus Cultural Differences: Forms of Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision.“ American Political Science Review 104(4): 644–662.

Session 10: Ethnic parties and ethnic voting [EL]

• Chandra, Kanchan. 2004. Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Headcounts in India. Cambridge University Press, 33–46, 82–98, 143–171. 
• Ichino, Nahomi, and Noah L. Nathan. 2013. “Crossing the Line: Local Ethnic Geography and Voting in Ghana.” American Political Science Review 107 (2): 344–361.
• Arriola, Leonardo R. 2013. “Capital and Opposition in Africa: Coalition Building in Multiethnic Societies.” World Politics 65 (2): 233–272.

Group 1

• Abott, Carolyn, and Asya Magazinnik. 2020. “At-Large Elections and Minority Representation in Local Government.” American Journal of Political Science 64(3): 717–733. 

Group 2

• Zonszein, Stephanie, and Guy Grossman. 2024. “Turnout Turnaround: Ethnic Minority Victories Mobilize White Voters.” American Political Science Review 118 (3): 1556–1562. 

Recommended Readings

• Ferree, K. E. 2006. “Explaining South Africa’s Racial Census.” Journal of Politics 68 (4): 803–815.
• Franck, Raphael, and Ilia Rainer. 2012. “Does the Leader’s Ethnicity Matter? Ethnic Favoritism, Education, and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa.” American Political Science Review 106 (2): 294–325.
• Koter, Dominika. 2013. “King Makers: Local Leaders and Ethnic Politics in Africa.” World Politics 65 (2): 187–232.
• Cammett, Melani, Dominika Kruszewska-Eduardo, Christiana Parreira, and Sami Atallah. 2022. “Coethnicity Beyond Clientelism: Insights from an Experimental Study of Political Behavior in Lebanon.” Politics and Religion 15 (2): 417–438.
• Dancygier, Rafaela M., Karl-Oskar Lindgren, Sven Oskarsson, and Kåre Vernby. 2015. “Why Are Immigrants Underrepresented in Politics? Evidence from Sweden.” American Political Science Review 109 (4): 703–724.
• Rovny, Jan. 2023. “Antidote to Backsliding: Ethnic Politics and Democratic Resilience.” American Political Science Review 117 (4): 1410–28.

Session 11: Research and proposal presentation

• No readings assigned

Session 12: Violence: Civil wars, genocide, pogroms [VC]

• Kopstein, Jeffrey, and Jason Wittenberg. 2011. “Deadly Communities: Local Political Milieus and the Persecution of Jews in Occupied Poland.” Comparative Political Studies 44 (3): 259–283.
• Grosfeld, Irena, Syhun Orcan Sakalli, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya. 2020. “Middleman Minorities and Ethnic Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms in the Russian Empire.” Review of Economic Studies 87: 289–342.
• Braun, Robert. 2016. “Religious Minorities and Resistance to Genocide: The Collective Rescue of Jews in the Netherlands During the Holocaust.” American Political Science Review 110 (1): 127–147.
• Weaver, Michael. 2019. “‘Judge Lynch’ in the Court of Public Opinion: Publicity and the De-legitimation of Lynching.” American Political Science Review 113 (2): 293–310.
• McNamee, Lachlan. 2018. “Mass Resettlement and Political Violence: Evidence from Rwanda.” World Politics 70 (4): 595–644.

Session 13: Overcoming ethnic conflict and violence [EL]

• Mousa, Salma. 2021. “Building Social Cohesion Between Christians and Muslims Through Soccer in Post-ISIS Iraq.” Science 369 (6505): 866–870.
• Scacco, Alexandra, and Shana S. Warren. 2018. “Can Social Contact Reduce Prejudice and Discrimination? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Nigeria.” American Political Science Review 112 (3): 654–677.
• Brown, Jacob, Ryan Enos, James Feigenbaum, and Shom Mazumder. 2021. “Childhood Cross-Ethnic Exposure Predicts Political Behavior Seven Decades Later: Evidence from Linked Administrative Data.” Science Advances 7 (24): 1–14.
• Paluck, Elizabeth, Seth Green, and Donald Green. 2019. “The Contact Hypothesis Reevaluated.” Behavioral Public Policy 3 (2): 129–158.
• Paler, Marshall, and Atallah. 2020. “How Cross-Cutting Discussion Shapes Support for Ethnic Politics: Evidence from an Experiment in Lebanon.” (PDF) Quarterly Journal of Political Science 15: 33–71.
• Straus, Scott. 2012. “Retreating from the Brink: Theorizing Mass Violence and the Dynamics of Restraint.” Perspectives on Politics 10(2): 343–362.  

Recommended Readings

• Kteily, Nour, Gordon Hodson, and Emile Bruneau. 2016. “They See Us As Less Than Human: Metadehumanization Predicts Intergroup Conflict via Reciprocal Dehumanization.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 110 (3): 343–370.
• King, E. 2017. “What Framing Analysis Can Teach Us About History Textbooks, Peace, and Conflict: The Case of Rwanda.” In (Re)constructing Memory: Education, Identity, and Conflict, eds. M. J. Bellino & J. H. Williams. Sense Publishers, 23–48.
• Varshney, Ashutosh. 2002. Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, Chap. 1, 4–5. [Preview with Google Books]
• Paluck, Elizabeth Levy. 2009. “Reducing Intergroup Prejudice and Conflict Using the Media: A Field Experiment in Rwanda.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96 (3): 574–587.
• Dunning, Thad, and Lauren Harrison. 2010. “Cross-Cutting Cleavages and Ethnic Voting: An Experimental Study of Cousinage in Mali.” American Political Science Review 104(1): 21–39.