The Link between Ethnic Fractionalization and Corruption Revised: Ethnic Voting in Africa

Abstract

This paper revisits the relationship between ethnic fractionalization and corruption. Earlier literature argues that ethnic fractionalization leads to corruption via mechanisms involving ethnic in-groupfavoritism. In this study, an alternative theory suggests that the causalrelationship runs in the other direction: when the political system is corrupt and fails to deliver security, voters will fall back on ethnic institutions. This creates the stronger patterns of ethnic identity and ethnicvoting that we see in countries considered to be ethnically fractionalized. Conducting three analyses: a regression and an instrumentalvariable design on the country level, and an individuallevel analysison party prefer-ences from the Afrobarometer dataset, the thesis findssupport for the alternative theory.