Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ethnic Political Parties And Civil Conflict, Erin Nicole El Koubi

LSU Master's Theses

The lack of consensus on the significance of ethnicity on civil conflict derives from the measures used, not from the concept’s lack of merit. Current measures, such as the ethno-linguistic fractionalization index (ELF), examine differences in demographics rather than how the diversity becomes politically relevant or when the diversity leads to conflict. By using Horowitz’s (1985) theory of ethnic voting and a measure for how closely a state’s political parties are aligned with ethnic groups, one can better assess how countries’ ethnic groups are politically organized and how this organization is associated with civil conflict. Using an original measure derived …