The Effects of Ethnic Parties on National Unity: Polarisation vs Inclusion

Lead Research Organisation: University of Bristol
Department Name: Politics

Abstract

The political mobilisation of ethnicity has led to tensions between ethnic groups in, for example, Belgium and Canada, and to violent conflict with disastrous consequences in such diverse cases as Cyprus, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka. Some observers point to the particularistic politics of ethnic parties as fomenting ethnic tensions and call for their regulation. Others argue that ethnic parties may be valuable vehicles in solving such tensions because they contribute to the integration of diverse ethnic groups. However, both views are so far based on assumptions rather than empirical evidence; to date, the effect of ethnic parties on ordinary people within society has not been examined directly.

The proposed project will fill this gap, contributing to a better understanding of the links between ethnic parties and national unity within the population: Does the presence of ethnic parties affect the way people perceive the ethnic "other" or the nation? Is this effect positive, because ethnic parties as emancipatory vehicles increase the inclusion of ethnic minorities within the population? Or is it negative, because ethnic parties raise awareness of ethnic differences? To answer these questions, the project will first conduct a global comparative analysis of 105 diverse countries, using a new multilevel dataset. It will then conduct in-depth studies of two countries to examine the nature of these links. Both the quantitative and in-depth analyses are needed to better understand whether there are general links between the presence of ethnic parties and diminished national unity throughout different contexts and to identify the nature of this link in important cases.

The project will provide both methodological and substantive contributions. Methodologically, the project will provide two main innovations. First, it will integrate multiple quantitative and qualitative methods and techniques, currently under-used in UK social science research on ethnic politics, and in doing so provide a new, extensive multilevel dataset for further research. Second, the project will forge new links between the project team and international experts working in democracy promotion and, in particular, party assistance. Stakeholders will be involved in the design, execution, and dissemination of the research at different stages throughout and after the project, including an expert survey in the first phase of the project to inform data collection and compilation, consultation on case selection, interviews of experts and local stakeholders during the in-depth case studies, as well as a workshop to identify the contributions of the research to the stakeholders.

Substantively, the research will shed light on the compatibility of diversity, democracy, and social cohesion and thus address the ESRC priority "A Vibrant and Fair Society". The findings will inform research not only on ethnic parties and ethnic conflict management but also more broadly on the interaction of power, political rhetoric, and identity. In doing so, the research will advance our understanding of the behaviour of people, social groupings, and organisations, and of how to influence them, deepening the evidence base that can inform policy and practice in the UK and internationally. Both local actors as well as international organisations have become increasingly active in the field of political party regulation and engineering in order to support democratisation and democratic consolidation. Examining the effect of ethnic parties within the population can provide valuable lessons for party assistance strategies to reduce the likelihood of ethnic tensions in diverse societies.

Planned Impact

Who will benefit from this research and how will they benefit?
Local actors and international organisations have become increasingly active in the field of political party regulation and assistance in order to support democratic consolidation (e.g. Reilly 2008; Bogaards et al. 2010). This research will benefit these actors by providing a new evidence base for the effect of ethnic parties on social cohesion, on which policy strategies may be based. In particular, the research will benefit five groups of actors:
1. International organisations working on party assistance and social cohesion for democracy consolidation, including the European Network of Political Foundations, the Council of Europe's office for Sustainable Democratic Societies, or the World Bank's team for Social Cohesion and Violence Prevention: The research will inform party assistance strategies by outlining whether and how ethnic parties affect social cohesion and hence whether their promotion may contribute to democratic consolidation. It will also help these organisations to understand and respond to public statements by, for, or against ethnic parties in the countries studied.
2. Party officials of ethnic parties from the two in-depth case studies: The research will inform on party mobilisation strategies and how ethnic representation can be promoted without fostering perceptions of sectarianism. The international context will help parties to learn from other cases, while the in-depth analysis will demonstrate the effects of their political rhetoric.
3. Local policy-makers from the two case studies: The quantitative data analysis will provide evidence on the effects of ethnic parties within the population and hence on whether ethnic party regulation is desirable. This evidence base will help with the articulation or review of ethnic party regulations.
4. Ethnic party members and voters in the two case studies: The research will provide party members and the public with new insights into how ethnic parties contribute to national politics and how their interests are represented. For the two in-depth countries both national data and international context will be available. These insights, disseminated through local media, will give people better information on which to base voting decisions and their own political activity.
5. UK FCO: The research will provide new insights into the impact of ethnic parties on national unity in 105 countries and hence be useful for UK foreign policy planning and the UK response to political change involving ethnic parties.

What will be done to ensure that they benefit from the research?
To facilitate these outcomes, the groups will be involved in design, execution, and dissemination of the research at different stages throughout and after the project (see Pathways to Impact), through
1. a survey among international organisations on issues encountered during party assistance in ethnically diverse societies, with results made available to participants in the form of a policy brief and to local organisations in the two case studies in meetings during fieldwork;
2. consultation of international organisations on final case selection for in-depth analysis; and
3. involvement of international organisations, UK FCO officials, and local party officials and policy-makers of the two case studies through interviews and a workshop to identify the contributions of the research to the stakeholders, with results made available to participants in the form of policy briefs.
4. The case studies will enable the project team to develop close working relationships with party officials, policy-makers, and the local offices of international organisations, which I intend to continue beyond the grant. These links will be used to promote the research in local media (e.g. newspapers, websites, and radio), thus reaching a wider public audience of party members and voters.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description The project set out to achieve a better understanding of the effects of ethnic parties on national unity. Do ethnic parties help minority representation and integration? Or do they raise awareness of ethnic differences and hence undermine national unity? The answers to these questions affect whether ethnic parties - at home or abroad - help build diverse democracies and should be supported, or whether they undermine it and other solutions to minority representation need to be found. Overall, the research shows that ethnic parties do not have a detrimental effect on ethnic relations, as often assumed in both academia and policy. The collected data will be useful in examining the implications in more detail.
In answering these questions, the project attained several achievements, including:
i) an expert survey on ethnic party representation and rhetoric in 36 countries; and
ii) a representative election panel survey of minority and majority Romanians, directly examining whether ethnic party rhetoric has a detrimental effect on ethnic relations.

First, we conducted an online expert survey on party-citizen linkages to identify party characteristics - in particular those related to mobilization rhetoric - that are not readily available in published material on the different political parties. This survey invited participation of experts from party aid organizations present in each country, identified via online research and snowball sampling. It was supported by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy. The survey data resulted in a preliminary report disseminated to participants, reporting that even where parties aim at preferential treatment of their ethnic or religious group, they do not advocate for the political exclusion of others and are therefore not necessarily as big a risk to a diverse democracy as often assumed. The data set has been published via the UK Data Archive.

Second, I designed and commissioned a panel survey of Romanians and Hungarians - represented by an ethnic party - around the 2016 election campaign in Romania. In contrast to existing surveys, this data set made it possible to directly examine whether ethnic party rhetoric affects minority and majority populations in different local contexts. The analysis showed that ethnic party rhetoric does increase awareness of ethnic diversity but does not worse ethnic relations. In contrast, the nationwide election experience seems to unite the population as Romanian citizens. The analysis has been published in the American Journal of Political Science, and the data set is available via the journal's Dataverse website.
Exploitation Route The project work may be taken forward both in the academic and non-academic context. In academia, researchers may use the new data on ethnic party representation and rhetoric to examine their effect on a number of political attitudes. In addition to those covered in the present project - national unity and political support - it would be particularly interesting to examine the mechanism more closely through the link of ethnic parties and the political efficacy of minorities and majorities. Outside of academia, policy makers may want to take the findings forward by questioning preconceived ideas about the nature of ethnic parties, and instead assessing on a case-by-case basis whether ethnic party contestation and representation may help or hinder democracy in diverse societies. The expert survey data set on party-society linkages provides a first step to do so.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Government

Democracy and Justice

Security and Diplomacy

 
Description Travel grant, Electoral Integrity Project
Amount $200 (AUD)
Organisation University of Sydney 
Sector Academic/University
Country Australia
Start 06/2018 
End 07/2018
 
Description Visiting Senior Research Fellowship
Amount $2,000 (AUD)
Organisation University of Sydney 
Sector Academic/University
Country Australia
Start 01/2016 
End 06/2016
 
Title Party-Citizen Linkages 
Description The Party-Citizen Linkages Survey asked country experts of 36 countries for their assessment of the inclusiveness of political parties around the world, from Albania to Zimbabwe. Strong democracies require inclusive, programmatic parties, particularly so in diverse societies. How do we know when political parties are inclusive, or when more needs to be done to empower marginalised groups? Experts were asked to answer questions on party organisation, campaign strategies, and political positions. The questionnaire consisted of four sections with a total of 31 questions. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact I wrote a report summarising the results for the survey respondents and main stakeholder. 
URL https://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/cgi/users/home?screen=EPrint::Summary&eprintid=853090
 
Title Romania Election Panel Study 
Description Election panel survey data collected around the Romanian General Election in December 2016. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Results published in the top political science journal American Journal of Political Science. A further co-authored article is currently under review. 
URL https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/ICISE4
 
Description Party-Citizen Linkages 
Organisation Aarhus University
Country Denmark 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution My research team has conceived, designed, and conducted the expert survey on party-citizen linkages and analysed the resulting data.
Collaborator Contribution NIMD staff and collaborators from the University of Aarhus have lent their expertise and assistance to the conduct of an expert survey on party-citizen linkages.
Impact The collaboration resulted in an expert survey data set on party-citizen linkages, with initial results in a policy brief disseminated to the collaborator and survey participants. Other results were reported by the collaborators from the University of Aarhus in a separate article published in Democratization.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Party-Citizen Linkages 
Organisation Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy
Country Netherlands 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution My research team has conceived, designed, and conducted the expert survey on party-citizen linkages and analysed the resulting data.
Collaborator Contribution NIMD staff and collaborators from the University of Aarhus have lent their expertise and assistance to the conduct of an expert survey on party-citizen linkages.
Impact The collaboration resulted in an expert survey data set on party-citizen linkages, with initial results in a policy brief disseminated to the collaborator and survey participants. Other results were reported by the collaborators from the University of Aarhus in a separate article published in Democratization.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Romanian Election Panel Study 
Organisation Babes-Bolyai University
Country Romania 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I fully conceived, funded, and managed the survey.
Collaborator Contribution Professor Gabriel Badescu from Babes-Bolayi University and Dr Diana Onu from the University of Exeter lent their expertise in political/psychological questionnaires in the Romanian context.
Impact The collaboration resulted in a survey data set on opinions and attitudes surrounding the Romanian 2016 elections. One article presenting the findings from the data has been published, and another one is under review. The collaboration was multidisciplinary, involving political science, sociology, and social psychology.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Romanian Election Panel Study 
Organisation University of Exeter
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I fully conceived, funded, and managed the survey.
Collaborator Contribution Professor Gabriel Badescu from Babes-Bolayi University and Dr Diana Onu from the University of Exeter lent their expertise in political/psychological questionnaires in the Romanian context.
Impact The collaboration resulted in a survey data set on opinions and attitudes surrounding the Romanian 2016 elections. One article presenting the findings from the data has been published, and another one is under review. The collaboration was multidisciplinary, involving political science, sociology, and social psychology.
Start Year 2016