Democracy, globalization and ethnic violence

Bezemer, Dirk, and Jong-A-Pin, Richard Democracy, globalization and ethnic violence

Do democratization and globalization processes combine to increase the incidence of violence in developing and emerging economies? The present paper examines this hypothesis by a study of internal violence in Sub-Sahara Africa with its recent democratization wave, the globalization process and the presence of advantaged ethnic minorities. Specifically, we examine if democratization and globalization lead to ethnic violence in the presence of 'market-dominant' minorities. We explore the theoretical underpinning of this scenario and empirically assess its implications employing panel fixed effects regressions over the period 1984-2003. We find support in a Sub-Saharan African sample but no evidence for a worldwide effect. Journal of Comparative Economics 41 (1) (2013) 108-125. University of Groningen, The Netherlands. (C) 2012 Association for Comparative Economic Studies Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.