Dispersing Authority or Deepening Divisions? Decentralization and Ethnoregional Party Success
35 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2011 Last revised: 30 Sep 2014
Date Written: 2011
Abstract
Political scientists have fiercely debated the impact of decentralization on ethnic conflict; some see it as a panacea, while others contend that it sows the seeds of its own failure by stimulating and then entrenching ethnic divisions via ethnoregional parties. Using multiple methods — historical analysis, quantitative case studies of Italy and Spain, and multivariate models of the share of votes and seats won by ethnoregional parties in 71 democracies — this paper demonstrates that no systematic link exists between decentralization and ethnoregional party electoral success in national elections. Because decentralization does not exacerbate interethnic partisan divisions, institutional designers should retain it as an option when crafting political institutions even in countries with ethnic divisions.
Keywords: decentralization, ethnic conflict, electoral systems, ethnic, regional, parties
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