TY - UNPB
T1 - How the Empowerment of National Minorities at the Regional and Local Level Fuels Inter-Ethnic Violence: The Case of Ethiopia
AU - Rohrbach, Livia
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Empowering ethnic groups at the regional and local level by providing them with territorial autonomy is a common strategy for accommodating diversity in multi-ethnic states. However, disagreement over the long-term consequences of such strategies for the preservation of national unity persist. Previous research was primarily concerned with the link between autonomy and secessionist conflict. What has received little attention is the variation of conflict within countries that grant autonomy to ethnic groups as opposed to questions relating to the disintegration of the system as a whole. In this paper, I therefore move the focus away from violence directed at the center, as that is the case in most secessionist conflicts, towards violence directed at other ethnic groups at the sub-national level, in particular intra-unit minorities. The more specific inquiry arising from this perspective is how territorial autonomy, and the way it alters the power relations between groups on the regional and local level, influences violence between groups. In order to illustrate the consequences of empowering national minorities at the sub-national level for inter-ethnic violence, I will conduct a sub-national comparison of the 68 administrative zones of the ethno-federal system of Ethiopia, further substantiated by interview data gathered during fieldwork. The preliminary results suggest that the empowerment of national minorities at the regional and local level indeed tends to increase inter-ethnic violence.
AB - Empowering ethnic groups at the regional and local level by providing them with territorial autonomy is a common strategy for accommodating diversity in multi-ethnic states. However, disagreement over the long-term consequences of such strategies for the preservation of national unity persist. Previous research was primarily concerned with the link between autonomy and secessionist conflict. What has received little attention is the variation of conflict within countries that grant autonomy to ethnic groups as opposed to questions relating to the disintegration of the system as a whole. In this paper, I therefore move the focus away from violence directed at the center, as that is the case in most secessionist conflicts, towards violence directed at other ethnic groups at the sub-national level, in particular intra-unit minorities. The more specific inquiry arising from this perspective is how territorial autonomy, and the way it alters the power relations between groups on the regional and local level, influences violence between groups. In order to illustrate the consequences of empowering national minorities at the sub-national level for inter-ethnic violence, I will conduct a sub-national comparison of the 68 administrative zones of the ethno-federal system of Ethiopia, further substantiated by interview data gathered during fieldwork. The preliminary results suggest that the empowerment of national minorities at the regional and local level indeed tends to increase inter-ethnic violence.
M3 - Working paper
BT - How the Empowerment of National Minorities at the Regional and Local Level Fuels Inter-Ethnic Violence: The Case of Ethiopia
ER -
