Identity politics and Representation

Question 1

Define ethnicity (Kanchan Chandra 2006)

Answer 1

Membership into an ascriptive category such as race, caste, tribe an, language or religion

Ethnic identity is relatively sticky (difficult to change e.g. accent), and visible (difficult to hide e.g. skin colour)

Question 2

Primordialist

Answer 2

believes individuals have a single ethnic identity which is fixed in the present and future

Does not need to be biologically determined

Once acquired becomes immutable and central to their political behaviour

Question 3

Primordialist - ethnicity fractionalisation

Answer 3

Ethnicity fractionalisation impeded the provision of public good,

1. Different preferences over goods
2. Barriers to communication making coordination difficult
3. People do not do their share in taking care of public goods due to misinformation within society
4. Membership in groups creates stronger feelings of altruism to other groups

Ethnic fractionalisation worsens collective action problems

1. Public schools in Kenya tend to be worse where there is greater ethnic fractionalisation

Question 4

Constructuvists

Answer 4

see ethnicity as a dependent variable Economic, social and political processes shape the salience and the emergence of identity categories

State building for example results in enumerating human, figuring out their territorial basses

Question 5

Constructavist - case studys

Answer 5

1. In 1876 India, the British created the decidual Indian census which had tried to measure the castes and tribes of India

This process of enumerating people had strengthened and challenged these identity’s

Caste categories in India become politized because the states make effort to build policy and make measure in the process of state building

2. Evan Leiberman argues that the creation of a constitutional white national political community in South Africa had led to the construction of an apartheid regime

Question 6

Robert Bates

Answer 6

Modernisation had led to the flourishing of ethnic politics as it had created ethnic winners and losers

Modernity is defined as the attainment of higher levels of education, growing per capita income, urbanisation, political participation, industrial employment and media penetration

It creates a set of desired goods e.g. jobs, land, which establishes a new basis for satisfaction in society

Colonial policy created dominant ethnic groups and winners

Question 7

Instrumentalists

Answer 7

A sub-set of constructivists

See ethnicity as constructed to advance certain political objective

It is heightened by strategic actions of the elite and is a way for certain groups to obtain scarce government services

This is because leaders find effective to dole out goods in a more discreet personalised manner to ensure their success in an election rather than provide mass welfare because they don’t know what the electoral effects of diffuse marks welfare benefits will be

They play a game where they know for sure if they can address the needs of group XY&Z in a minimum winning coalition by distributing goods they can use that as a way to put themselves in power

Question 8

Chandra 2005

Answer 8

Chandra (2005): argues identities are constructivist over a long-period of tine based on incentive of state building

Lead to a particular state of affairs

Found in India in the 1990’s, the state had the ability to give jobs and provide services elected officials had discretion on how those jobs services would be provided and would get those jobs

If private sector became bigger than the public sector thwere would be no discretion

India is a patronage democracy which leads to groups fighting to take control over this sector in order to distribute benefits to those in their group

New forms of new forms of untouchability new forms of even upper casteness merge as a way to compete with each other