Does Democracy Reduce Ethnic Inequality?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Does Democracy Reduce Ethnic Inequality?

AU - Leipziger, Lasse Egendal

PY - 2024/10

Y1 - 2024/10

N2 - To what extent and under what conditions do democratic institutions reduce socioeconomic ethnic inequality? I argue that democratization reduces ethnic inequality by introducing electoral accountability, which facilitates a series of egalitarian policies. However, the effect of democratization is conditional on the distribution of resources under the previous, nondemocratic regime. Countries that were more ethnically unequal prior to democratization experience greater egalitarian effects following democratization. To examine the argument, I leverage multiple country- and group-level measures of ethnic inequality. Using fixed effects regressions, instrumental variable analyses, and event studies, I demonstrate that democratization substantively reduces ethnic inequality, but mainly for countries with high predemocratic levels of inequality.

AB - To what extent and under what conditions do democratic institutions reduce socioeconomic ethnic inequality? I argue that democratization reduces ethnic inequality by introducing electoral accountability, which facilitates a series of egalitarian policies. However, the effect of democratization is conditional on the distribution of resources under the previous, nondemocratic regime. Countries that were more ethnically unequal prior to democratization experience greater egalitarian effects following democratization. To examine the argument, I leverage multiple country- and group-level measures of ethnic inequality. Using fixed effects regressions, instrumental variable analyses, and event studies, I demonstrate that democratization substantively reduces ethnic inequality, but mainly for countries with high predemocratic levels of inequality.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85166781888&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/ajps.12812

DO - 10.1111/ajps.12812

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0092-5853

VL - 68

SP - 1335

EP - 1352

JO - American Journal of Political Science

JF - American Journal of Political Science

IS - 4

ER -