Loyality premiums: vote prices and political support in a dominant-party regime
In: Comparative politics, Band 50, Heft 1, S. 1-20
ISSN: 0010-4159
In: Comparative politics, Band 50, Heft 1, S. 1-20
ISSN: 0010-4159
World Affairs Online
In: Comparative politics, Band 50, Heft 1, S. 1-35
ISSN: 2151-6227
In: Political behavior, Band 40, Heft 3, S. 593-627
ISSN: 1573-6687
In: African affairs: the journal of the Royal African Society, Band 115, Heft 460, S. 516-540
ISSN: 0001-9909
In: African affairs: the journal of the Royal African Society, Band 115, Heft 460, S. 516-540
ISSN: 1468-2621
World Affairs Online
Does economic standing cross-cut ethnicity in African electoral politics? In many countries in the region, ethnicity appears to be a major consideration in individuals' political decision-making. However, there is significant variation in the extent to which coethnics support parties en bloc; while some ethnic groups exhibit high rates of similarity in terms of members' preferred parties, others are more fractionalized. One factor that might affect the probability that an individual will support the plurality-choice party of his or her ethnic group is relative economic standing. I expect that, as the distance between an individual's level of wealth and his or her ethnic group's median level of wealth increases, the probability of the member supporting the most-favoured party of their coethnics decreases. In other words, economic considerations can cross-cut ascriptive identities. I test this expectation with data from 27 countries included in the fifth round of the Afrobarometer and find that individuals who are significantly different, in terms of wealth, from other members of their ethnic group are significantly less likely to support their group's plurality-choice party. Specifically, economic difference increases non-partisanship and support for out-parties (i.e., those not their group's plurality choice). Further, being a member of a group that has greater levels of within-group inequality reduces support for a plurality-choice party, while living in a country with higher levels of between-group inequality increases support for a plurality-choice party. The results suggest that some ethnic groups' propensity towards bloc voting can be explained, at least partially, by group-level similarities in economic interests.
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In: Electoral studies: an international journal, Band 42, S. 99-113
ISSN: 0261-3794
In: Electoral Studies, Band 42, S. 99-113
In: Political communication, Band 33, Heft 3, S. 414-432
ISSN: 1058-4609
In: Comparative political studies: CPS, Band 49, Heft 1, S. 3-35
ISSN: 0010-4140
World Affairs Online