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Horizontal Inequalities and Ethnonationalist Civil War: A Global Comparison
Open accessAbstract
Contemporary research on civil war has largely dismissed the role of political and economic grievances, focusing instead on opportunities for conflict. However, these strong claims rest on questionable theoretical and empirical grounds. Whereas scholars have examined primarily the relationship between individual inequality and conflict, we argue that horizontal inequalities between politically relevant ethnic groups and states at large can promote ethnonationalist conflict. Extending the empirical scope to the entire world, this article introduces a new spatial method that combines our newly geocoded data on ethnic groups’ settlement areas with spatial wealth estimates. Based on these methodological advances, we find that, in highly unequal societies, both rich and poor groups fight more often than those groups whose wealth lies closer to the country average. Our results remain robust to a number of alternative sample definitions and specifications.
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“Using EPR's geocoded data on ethnic settlement areas, Cederman, Weidmann and Gleditsch (2011) extend the study of political exclusion to economic inequality, in order to show that ethnic groups that are poorer and richer than the country's average income are more likely to stage rebellion.”
From Dynamics and Logics of Civil War (2017) · cites this paper as Cederman, Weidmann and Gleditsch (2011)
In the citing paper
“The resulting polarization might incentivize these individuals/groups to seize political power by force to redistribute wealth in their favor, thus increasing the likelihood of conflict (Cederman et al 2011, Guariso and Rogall 2017, Koubi 2017).”
From The impacts of climate change on violent conflict risk: a review of causal pathways (2024) · cites this paper as Cederman et al 2011
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“As Cederman et al. (2011, 481) argue, “Violations of norms of justice and equality will typically arouse feelings of anger and resentment among members of the disadvantaged group.””
From Conflict Recurrence and Postconflict Justice: Addressing Motivations and Opportunities for Sustainable Peace (2017) · cites this paper as Cederman et al. 2011
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Metadata
- Authors
- CEDERMAN, L.-E., WEIDMANN, N. B., & GLEDITSCH, K. S.
- Affiliations
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Yale University (US)
- University of Essex (GB)
- Corresponding author
- CEDERMAN, LARS-ERIK
- WEIDMANN, NILS B.
- GLEDITSCH, KRISTIAN SKREDE
- Venue
- American Political Science Review
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2011-07-11
- Volume
- 105
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 478-495
- ISSN
- 0003-0554 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5943
- OpenAlex
- W2122757622
- Cited by
- 1,028
- References
- 99
- Citations by year
- 2026: 31 · 2025: 117 · 2024: 79 · 2023: 50 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 53 · 2020: 126 · 2019: 93 · 2018: 62 · 2017: 67 · 2016: 57 · 2015: 67 · 2014: 80 · 2013: 58 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 185.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- American Political Science Review (publishedVersion)
- Open Access at Essex (University of Essex) (acceptedVersion)
- reroDoc Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- KOPS (University of Konstanz) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- ETH Zürich Research Collection
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (180441, 105511)
- European Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (105511, 116795)
- Norges Forskningsråd
- Economic and Social Research Council (RES-062-23-, ES/E007147/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Conflict and Governance
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › General Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Natural Resources and Economic Development
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
- Keywords
- horizontal inequality, ethnic conflict, ethnic groups, geocoded data, political grievances, economic grievances
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