Constructivism (ethnic Politics)
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Constructivism presumes that ethnic identities are shapeable and affected by
politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
. Through this framework, constructivist theories reassesses conventional
political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
dogmas. Research indicates that institutionalized cleavages and a
multiparty system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coal ...
discourage ethnic outbidding and identification with tribal, localized groups. In addition, constructivism questions the widespread belief that ethnicity inherently inhibits national, macro-scale identification. To prove this point, constructivist findings suggest that
modernization Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
, language consolidation, and border-drawing, weakened the tendency to identify with micro-scale identity categories. One manifestation of ethnic politics gone awry, ethnic violence, is itself not seen as necessarily ethnic, since it attains its ethnic meaning as a conflict progresses.


Defining ethnic identity

In contrast to
primordialism Primordialism is the idea that nations or ethnic identities are fixed, natural and ancient.Jack Hayward, Brian Barry, Archie Brown (2003) p 330 Primordialists argue that each individual has a single inborn ethnic identity independent of historica ...
, constructivism observes that ethnic identities are not unchanging entities. Instead, political developments can shape which identities get activated.


Chandra on ethnic identity

Under one conceptualization of ethnic identity, descent-based attributes—e.g.,
skin color Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents and or individu ...
—are the defining marker of ethnic identities. Given the diversity of each individual's inherited attributes, everyone retains a "repertoire" of nominal identities that they can activate. To illustrate this concept,
Kanchan Chandra Kanchan Chandra (born 20 January 1971) is a political scientist who is currently Professor of Politics at New York University. She has made significant research contributions on a range of subjects in political science including comparative ethnic ...
offers the fictitious example of Helen, a
Trinidadian American Trinidadian and Tobagonian Americans (also known as Trinbagonian Americans) are people with Trinidadian and Tobagonian ancestry or immigrants who were born in Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago is home to people of many different national, ...
. Among Helen's nominal identities are the following categories:
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
,
West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...
,
Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
. In different contexts, Helen may emphasize different attributes, and by extension different identities, with which she identifies. To activate her membership in the West Indian or Black categories, she may decide to underscore attributes like her birth in
Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
or her skin color, respectively. Two factors—Chandra maintains—qualify the extent to which someone can change their repertoire of nominal identities: constrained change and visibility. The former factor acknowledges how many descent-based attributes, including skin color, are "sticky," i.e., restrictive of nominal identities and not easily changeable. Chandra states that Helen, for example, cannot plausibly claim to be German if none of her parents have German descent; nor can Helen activate any other identity extraneous to her repertoire. Moreover, "visibility" refers to the observability of descent-based attributes, since skin color, hair color, and the like are all noticeable and often carry an association with a particular ethnic identity. Both constrained change and visibility regulate the category repertoire. With that being said, Chandra's framework does not foreclose the avenues of category change entirely. Explained by Chandra, it allows for five pathways: # "Change in the Repertoire of Basic Descent-Based Attributes" - This pathway alters which attributes are salient to category determination. In the U.S., as Chandra notes, skin color comprises a vital attribute that sways whom the public deems White, Black, etc. In a different country—presumably one with less stark differences in skin color—ear length may matter more. For post-colonial nations, a large determinant of which attributes receive emphasis, has been the
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
. During Spanish colonial rule in
Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
, census administrators classified landless peasants as ''
mestizo (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also r ...
s'', even though they did so because ''
hacienda An ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or ''finca''), similar to a Roman ''latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards), ...
'' owners wanted to shield their landless peasant workers from taxation. Nevertheless, land-owning status became a salient attribute vis-à-vis the ''mestizo'' category. # "Change in the 'Full' Repertoire of Nominal Ethnic Identity Categories" - Using the attributes they possess, individuals can construct new categories, though such change can only be long-term. To consolidate any changes, institutional frameworks, including the census, codify them. And newly constructed categories must remain logically consistent with their constitutive attributes. # "Change in the 'Operative' Repertoire of Nominal Identity Categories" - One's "operative repertoire" depends on the surrounding environment. If those around Helen, a Trinidadian American, have never heard of Trinidad, then Helen's activation options are effectively constrained to her African American and West Indian identities. Contextualization can therefore impact the nominal repertoire. # "Individuals 'Passing' or 'Switching' Within an Existing Population Repertoire of Attributes" - At times, a person who possesses attributes that closely resemble those of another group's, can "pass" as a member of that group. An outside observer may know little about the nuanced distinctions between Lapps and
Norwegians Norwegians ( no, nordmenn) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nation native to Norway, where they form the vast majority of the population. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegians are descended from the N ...
. Yet since both ethnic identity groups have light skin and other similar features, a Lapp can pass successfully as a Norwegian, and vice versa. # "Reclassification of Activated Ethnic Identity Categories Within an Existing Repertoire of Categories" - Someone of biracial heritage, for instance, may emphasize one identity at work and another at home, directing attention toward the appropriate attributes—be they surname or birthplace. For her part, Helen may activate her Trinidadian roots when situated with relatives or other Trinidadians, but activate her African American identity when situated with American-born friends or colleagues.


Fearon and Laitin on ethnic identity

Like Chandra, James Fearon and
David Laitin David D. Laitin (born in 1945) is the James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor of Political Science in the School of Humanities and Science at Stanford University. He is a comparative politics scholar who has written works on civil war, ...
acknowledge the necessity of descent as a basis for ethnic identity membership rules. They nonetheless differ in one noteworthy respect: Fearon and Laitin's approach places a premium on "cultural attributes," a concept which entails traditions, historical memories and legacies, religious and spiritual beliefs, etc. In regard to changing ethnic identities, there are—theoretically speaking—three ways to bring about identity construction, namely socioeconomic trends, discourse, and individual action either by elites or by laypeople.


Chandra on ethnic parties

Beyond an identity-level analysis, Chandra broadens her definitional theory to a central governing institution, the political party. There exists a difference between a multi-ethnic party and an ethnic one. The former denotes a party that excludes no ethnic groups, while the latter designates a party that performs some kind of exclusion. Chandra lists seven benchmarks for gauging whether a political party is ethnic or not: (1) "Classification based on name"; (2) "Classification based on explicit appeals," i.e., rhetoric that explicitly targets a specific ethnic group or groups; (3) "Classification based on explicit issue positions"; (4) "Classifications based on the implicit activation of ethnic identities," i.e., code words/phrases like dog whistles; (5) "Classification based on a group's votes," i.e., whenever a certain ethnic group mostly and/or overwhelmingly backs a particular political party, excluding other groups from that party's support base; (6) "Party votes," i.e., whenever a political party receives most of its vote share from a certain ethnic group or groups; (7) "Ethnic leadership," i.e., the composition of the party leadership; and (8) "Ethnic arena of contestation," i.e., whenever a political party competes only in certain ethnic enclaves or regions. Exclusion, then, constitutes the key marker of an ethnic party, for it must exclude some ethnic group or groups via the aforementioned mechanisms. Otherwise, ethnic and multi-ethnic parties would remain definitionally indistinguishable.


Voting behavior

One article written by Jóhanna Kristín Birnir posits that because new democracies operate in low-information environments—per the creation of novel, undefined parties—ethnic cleavages become an especially important source of information for voters. Therefore, the more ethnically diverse a country is, the more stable its electoral results should be given the availability and visibility of ethnicity as a heuristic. Birnir surveys the activation of different ethnic identity cleavages in 59 countries, and examines
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
as a case study, concluding that linguistic identity is the most crucial cleavage during the infancy of a new
democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
. Birnir's study assesses the heterogeneity of democracies along linguistic and religious fractionalization, and measures "electoral volatility" via the difference in parties' vote share across electoral cycles. She finds that linguistic cleavages best anticipate said volatility. In many countries, Birnir asserts, linguistic barriers take precedence over racial ones, e.g., the
Basques The Basques ( or ; eu, euskaldunak ; es, vascos ; french: basques ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Bas ...
. The Bulgaria analysis, too, concludes that Turkish-speaking voters had stable voting behavior in the 1997 and 2001 elections. As for religion, it appears to be a cleavage that affects advanced, or "mature," party systems.


Political institutions


Institutionalized cleavages

Chandra disputes the notion that the ethnicization of politics can lead to outbidding—i.e., ethnic polarization—which destabilizes democracy. Her critique examines how India's constitutional structure enshrines (1) affirmative action for select
castes Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
, (2) the categorization of languages, and (3) the drawing of
Indian states India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...
—with a specific focus on the state of
Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
. In Chandra's telling, the
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
(BJP) moved to activate
Hindu nationalism Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent. "Hindu nationalism" or the correct term ''Hindū rāṣṭ ...
during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Consequently, the Janata Dal Party used affirmative action to dangle patronage for "Other Backward Castes" and thereby targeted caste divisions within the Hindu community; this helped halt BJP outbidding. The design of the
Indian Constitution The Constitution of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental r ...
, then, allowed political actors to activate different ethnic identities at different times. To remain viable, political parties must be able to attract diverse groups and compensate for losses incurred by the activation of a caste, religious, or some other identity; hence the moderation. Importantly, the Indian Constitution leaves the definition of its affirmative action, linguistic, and statehood provisions open to revision. Mitigating outbidding necessitates the institutionalization of cleavages with revisable definitions, so as to enable parties to leverage them for coalition-building.


Party structure

According to Daniel Posner, one-party elections highlight local, tribal identities, whereas multiparty contests bring larger identities—be they regional, religious, or linguistic—to the fore. When multiple parties vie for power, local political actors can associate themselves with a national party and thus "nationalize" a local election. A one-party regime, by contrast, removes the competitiveness of a national contest, and leaves local elections as the only outlet for ''de facto'' electoral competition. With the distractions of national political dynamics gone, local identities then assume greater salience. In
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
and
Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
, the adoption of a multiparty system boded a shift in the types of identities that political actors accentuated. Posner argues that the adoption of a multiparty system underscored "language" cleavages in Zambia and "ethnoregional" ones in Kenya. He arrives at this conclusion by identifying every individual who was a parliamentary candidate before and after the adoption, and coded for those who belonged to the largest linguistic (Zambia) and ethnoregional (Kenya) groups within their respective electoral districts. A multiparty system did accurately forecast the success of candidates tied to the aforementioned groups.


Historical phenomena


Language consolidation

Posner provides a narrative as to how colonialism influenced the historical development and geography of Zambian languages. He notes that colonial missionary, education, and labor practices winnowed the number of Zambian languages to four main ones: Bemba, Lozi,
Nyanja Chewa (also known as Nyanja, ) is a Bantu language spoken in much of Southern, Southeast and East Africa, namely the countries of Malawi , where it is an official language, and Mozambique and Zambia. The noun class prefix ''chi-'' is used for l ...
, and
Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...
. The first practice—missionary work—encouraged linguistic consolidation in order to ease the translation of the Bible. As for the second practice, colonial education officials made Bemba, Lozi, Nyanja, and Tonga the "languages of instruction," in 1927. Meanwhile, the
British South Africa Company The British South Africa Company (BSAC or BSACo) was chartered in 1889 following the amalgamation of Cecil Rhodes' Central Search Association and the London-based Exploring Company Ltd, which had originally competed to capitalize on the expecte ...
(BSA), a mining corporation, orchestrated the migration of laborers toward company mines. BSA actions directly contributed to the prevalence of Bemba speakers in the area known as the "
copperbelt The Copperbelt () is a natural region in Central Africa which sits on the border region between northern Zambia and the southern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is known for copper mining. Traditionally, the term ''Copperbelt'' includes the ...
." Furthermore, the company explicitly targeted them because their ancestral lands—in the northeast of
Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...
—were far removed from competing mines in
Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kn ...
and
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. The Bemba, BSA officials reasoned, would be less susceptible to alternative job offers, which threatened BSA profits by tendering better pay.


Border-drawing

As Posner observes, border-drawing asymmetrically distributed the population shares of Chewas and Tumbukas, and generated the incentive structure of interethnic competition. Chewa-Tumbuka relations are starkly different in
Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...
and Zambia. The relationship is hostile in the former, but cordial in the latter. To be clear, Chewas and Tumbukas in Malawi and Zambia share similarities by and large, especially because colonial authorities established the Malawi-Zambia border inattentively in terms of ethnic distribution. After confirming the stark attitudes through a field experiment, wherein he surveyed villagers who live near the border, Posner compares each group's share of the total population for both countries. With respect to Malawi, Chewas (28% share) and Tumbukas (12% share) were sizeable enough to comprise a political bloc in their own right. The Zambian results, however, showed something else: Chewas (7% share) and Tumbukas (4% share) were much smaller as individual groups. Zambia's unique demographic situation incentivized Chewas and Tumbukas to form a coalition together—given how each was too small to be viable politically—and construct an alliance as "Easterners."


Modernization

Through public opinion data compiled and collected by
Afrobarometer The Afrobarometer is a pan-African, independent, non-partisan research network that measures public attitudes on economic, political, and social matters in Africa. Its secretariat headquarters are in Accra, Ghana, registered as a limited company ...
, Amanda Lea Robinson investigates the relationship between modernization, ethnic diversity, and national identification, and she argues that modernization and ethnic diversity can induce the third outcome. To measure the first two factors, she uses 2005 GDP per capita and the Ethno-Linguistic Fractionalization (ELF) index, respectively. Modernization accurately predicts for increased national identification. In other words, the higher the GDP per capita for a given country, the higher the identification with a national identity. More specifically, urban residency fosters a 3% boost in national identification. Also, Robinson contends that diversity promotes political cohesion, not disunion. As suggested before by Posner, without the overwhelming majority of any single ethnic group, a heterogeneous body politic can have an incentive to de-emphasize identities that are inadequate as singular entities and instead ally with other groups, e.g., the Zambian Chewas and Tumbukas.


Ethnic violence

As previously mentioned, Fearon and Laitin identify three possible channels by which ethnic conflicts arise via identity construction: (1) "Social and Economic Processes as Agents of Construction," i.e., macrohistorical forces like modernization; (2) "Social Construction by Discourse"; and (3) "Individuals as Agents of Construction," whether they be elites or non-elites. Fearon and Laitin's findings review several books—including Gérard Prunier's ''The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide'' and Susan Woodward's ''Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution After the Cold War''—and glean the conclusion that the first and second channels inadequately or unclearly explain ethnic violence. "Individuals as Agents of Construction," though, presents a more promising explanation. The
Rwandan Genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...
, after all, originated from elite manipulation of identity construction, given that colonial and Rwandan leaders assigned the
Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the prin ...
-
Tutsi The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic grou ...
terminology ethnic significance. Prior to colonization, the terms indicated class rather than ethnicity. Fearon and Laitin see evidence for non-elite culpability as well, observing that some opportunistic non-elites hear elite cues and use them as excuses to plunder, execute personal vendettas, and/or indulge in violence. Further developing the constructivist understanding of ethnic violence, Janet Lewis points out the "ethnicization" of conflict. Put simply, conflicts take on an ethnic significance over time, as opposed to being innately ethnic from their start. Her case study—post-1986
Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...
—illustrates how ethnicity was originally negligible in the creation of insurgencies against the central government, and a great many soon ceased to operate. Rather, the groups capable of "ethnic mobilization," were the ones that survived and eventually acquired the capacity to inflict violent acts. Lewis assesses such an affiliation by determining which insurgent organizations sprung up in ethnically homogenous areas. Equipped with the 1991 Ugandan census and the ELF index, she found that ethnic homogeneity tracked an insurgent group's durability, though ethnicity did not engender these insurgencies per se. Successful insurgent groups enjoyed, on average, an ELF score of .20, while those that ended up being unsuccessful produced an ELF score of .47. As a result, the intersection of ethnicity and conflict did not really come about until after the conflict had commenced.{{Cite journal, last=Lewis, first=Janet I., date=2017-09-01, title=How Does Ethnic Rebellion Start?, url=https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414016672235, journal=Comparative Political Studies, language=en, volume=50, issue=10, pages=1434, doi=10.1177/0010414016672235, issn=0010-4140


References

Political science