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Causes and effects of ethnic conflict; international focus; 14 articles.

In most studies of the impact of ethnic diversity on economic growth, diversity is hypothesized to affect growth through its effect on macroeconomic policies. This article shows that most measures of ethnic diversity (including the commonly used ELF measure) are inappropriate for testing this hypothesis. This is because they are constructed from enumerations of ethnic groups that include all of the ethnographically distinct groups in a country irrespective of whether or not they engage in the political competition whose effects on macroeconomic policy making are being tested. I present a new index of ethnic fractionalization based on an accounting of politically relevant ethnic groups in 42 African countries. I employ this measure (called PREG, for Politically Relevant Ethnic Groups) to replicate Easterly and Levine's influential article on Africa's "growth tragedy." I find that PREG does a Much better job of accounting for the policy-mediated effects of ethnic diversity on economic growth in Africa than does ELF.

While the image of modern Myanmar/Burma tends to be couched in human rights terms - and especially of a heroic Aung San Suu Kyi opposing an oppressive military regime - in reality there are several conflicts with ethnic and religious dimensions, as well as political and ideological differences between the opposition and the ruling military regime. This is not surprising in a country where 30% of the population and much of the land area are non-Burman, and where contradictory tendencies towards regional separatism versus unitary rule have divided the people since before independence. In what is probably the most comprehensive study of Burma's ethnic minorities to date, this volume discusses the historical formation of ethnic identity and its complexities in relation to British colonial rule as well as to the modern State, the present situation of military rule and its policy of 'myanmarfication'. Changes of identity in exile and due to religious conversion are analysed and discussed. Finally, the book deals with relevant and recent anthropological and sociological theoretical discussions on the ethnic identity, boundaries and space of all the main ethnic groups in Burma. It probes into the complexity and diversity and it provides more details and up-to-date information than previously collected in one volume.

The ethnic paradigm has dominated political science analysis of societal conflict in west Malaysia. This perspective regards sociopolitical tensions to be a function of the competition between the superordinate & subordinate ethnic groups in the authoritative allocation of values. Such an approach ignores the fact that ethnicity itself is a situational variable, & hence cannot be regarded as a constant in conflict analysis. In adopting such an approach, it is found that ethnic identity & ethnic-based conflict in west Malaysia were intricately linked to the survival & displacement of elites within the ruling regime. However, the intensity as well as the continuing utility of ethnic conflict for political purposes is in the process of steady decline. This has been the result of the continuous transformation in west Malaysia's domestic political system, which has also been influenced by the intrusive nature of the international environment. Adapted from the source document.

The ethnic paradigm has dominated political science analysis of societal conflict in west Malaysia. This perspective regards sociopolitical tensions to be a function of the competition between the superordinate & subordinate ethnic groups in the authoritative allocation of values. Such an approach ignores the fact that ethnicity itself is a situational variable, & hence cannot be regarded as a constant in conflict analysis. In adopting such an approach, it is found that ethnic identity & ethnic-based conflict in west Malaysia were intricately linked to the survival & displacement of elites within the ruling regime. However, the intensity as well as the continuing utility of ethnic conflict for political purposes is in the process of steady decline. This has been the result of the continuous transformation in west Malaysia's domestic political system, which has also been influenced by the intrusive nature of the international environment. Adapted from the source document.

Bulgarian majority and Turkish minority relations have remained peaceful in the post Communist era despite a significant potential for civil strife. These antagonisms were a product of Bulgaria's historical political development. The most recent episode of forced assimilation policies under the Communist regime was a critical grievance contributing to the democratic transition in 1989. Unlike in neighboring Yugoslavia, communal ethnic conflict did not escalate to violence with political liberalization and the emergence of democratic political competition. A critical factor in the political formula for maintaining interethnic peace in Bulgaria has been Turkey's comparatively constrained behavior as a "motherland state" with regard to the Turkish Diaspora in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian majority and Turkish minority relations have remained peaceful in the post Communist era despite a significant potential for civil strife. These antagonisms were a product of Bulgaria's historical political development. The most recent episode of forced assimilation policies under the Communist regime was a critical grievance contributing to the democratic transition in 1989. Unlike in neighboring Yugoslavia, communal ethnic conflict did not escalate to violence with political liberalization and the emergence of democratic political competition. A critical factor in the political formula for maintaining interethnic peace in Bulgaria has been Turkey's comparatively constrained behavior as a 'motherland state' with regard to the Turkish Diaspora in Bulgaria. (Nationalities Papers)

European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program; ERC Grant Agreement, Grant/Award Number: 615159 (ERC Consolidator Grant DEPRIVEDHOODS, Socio‐spatial inequality, deprived neighbourhoods, and neighbourhood effects); Marie Curie program under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program; Career Integration, Grant/Award Number: PCIG10‐GA‐2011‐303728 (CIG Grant NBHCHOICE, Neighbourhood choice, neighbourhood sorting, and neighbourhood effects) ; Western cities are increasingly ethnically diverse, and in most cities, the share of the population belonging to an ethnic minority is growing. Studies analysing changing ethnic geographies often limit their analysis to changes in ethnic concentrations in neighbourhoods between 2 points in time. Such a temporally limited approach limits our understanding of pathways of ethnic neighbourhood change and of the underlying factors contributing to change. This paper analyses full trajectories of neighbourhood change in the 4 largest cities in the Netherlands between 1999 and 2013. Our modelling strategy categorises neighbourhoods based on their unique growth trajectories of the ethnic population composition, providing insight in processes of ethnic segregation and its drivers. Our main conclusion is that the ethnic composition in neighbourhoods remains relatively stable over time. We however find evidence for a slow trend towards deconcentration of ethnic minorities and increased population mixing in most neighbourhoods. Spatial mixing appears to be driven by the selective mobility patterns of the native Dutch population as a result of urban restructuring programmes. However, these pathways towards deconcentration are mitigated by processes of ethnic natural growth that reinforce existing patterns of segregation. Despite an increasing inflow of the native Dutch into ethnic concentration neighbourhoods, segregation at the top and bottom ends of the distribution seems to be persistent: High concentrations of ethnic minorities in disadvantaged neighbourhoods versus high concentrations of the native population in more affluent neighbourhoods continue to be a feature of Dutch cities. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

Although referendums have been used for centuries to settle ethnonational conflicts, there had yet been no systematic study or generalized theory concerning their effectiveness until Matt Qvortrup's Referendums and Ethnic Conflict. Qvortrup's study filled the gap with a comparative and empirical analysis of all the referendums held on ethnic and national issues from the French Revolution to the 2012 referendum on statehood for Puerto Rico. Drawing on political theory and descriptive case studies, the scholar created typologies of referendums that are held to endorse secession, redraw disputed borders, legitimize a policy of homogenization, or otherwise manage ethnic or national differences. He considered the circumstances that compel politicians to resort to direct democracy, such as regime change, and the conditions that might exacerbate a violent response. Qvortrup offers a clear-eyed assessment of the problems raised when conflict resolution is sought through referendum as well as the conditions that are likely to lead to peaceful outcomes.This updated and revised edition includes a new introduction bringing the general field to the present, as well as new specific sections on Scotland (2014), Catalonia (2017), and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom (2016). The original work's political framework now also covers the literature on identity politics, online campaigning, the regulation of social media, and how referendums are used increasingly as populist devices. This edition also updates referendum results through the end of 2020

We investigate how changes in the administrative-territorial structure affect ethnic voting. We present an event study design that exploits the 2010 constitutional reform in Kenya, which substantially increased the number of primary administrative regions. We find (i) strong evidence for a reduction in ethnic voting when administrative regions become less ethnically diverse and (ii) weak evidence for such a reduction when ethnic groups become less fragmented across regions. These results suggest that 'ethnofederal' reforms (leading to administrative borders that more closely follow ethnic boundaries) can mitigate ethnic politics in diverse countries.