Arbeitspapier
Ethnic identities, public spending and political regimes
Do democracies discriminate less against minorities as compared to non-democracies? How does the dominance of an ethnic group affect discrimination under various political regimes? We build a theory which tries to answer such questions. In our model, political leaders (democratically elected or not) decide on the allocation of spending on different types of public goods: a general public good and an ethnically-targetable public good which benefits the majority ethnic group while imposing a cost on the other minorities. We show that, under democracy, lower ethnic dominance leads to greater provision of the general public good while higher dominance implies higher provision of the ethnically-targetable good. Interestingly, the opposite relation obtains under dictatorship. This implies that political regime changes can favour or disfavour minorities based on the ambient level of ethnic dominance. Several historical events involving regime changes can be analysed within our framework and are consistent with our results.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
-
Series: School of Economics Discussion Papers ; No. 1907
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
Publicly Provided Goods: General
- Subject
-
Ethnic identities
Discrimination
Public spending
Political regimes
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Ghosh, Sugata
Mitra, Anirban
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
-
University of Kent, School of Economics
- (where)
-
Canterbury
- (when)
-
2019
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Ghosh, Sugata
- Mitra, Anirban
- University of Kent, School of Economics
Time of origin
- 2019
Other Objects (12)
Public spending on health as political instrument? Regime-type dependency of public spending
Oil revenues, ethnic fragmentation and political transition of authoritarian regimes
Political campaign spending limits
Immigrants, ethnic identities and the nation-state
Ethnic Coalitions and the Logic of Political Survival in Authoritarian Regimes
Crises and conflicts in post-socialist societies : the role of ethnic, political and social identities
Writing Canadians : the literary construction of ethnic identities
Dominant national cultures and ethnic identities, Pt. A
Dominant national cultures and ethnic identities, Pt. B
Do Oppositional Identities Reduce Employment for Ethnic Minorities?
Do Oppositional Identities Reduce Employment for Ethnic Minorities?
Political entrepreneurs and pork-barrel spending
Public spending on health as political instrument? Regime-type dependency of public spending
Oil revenues, ethnic fragmentation and political transition of authoritarian regimes
Political campaign spending limits
Immigrants, ethnic identities and the nation-state
Ethnic Coalitions and the Logic of Political Survival in Authoritarian Regimes
Crises and conflicts in post-socialist societies : the role of ethnic, political and social identities
Writing Canadians : the literary construction of ethnic identities
Dominant national cultures and ethnic identities, Pt. A
Dominant national cultures and ethnic identities, Pt. B
Do Oppositional Identities Reduce Employment for Ethnic Minorities?
Do Oppositional Identities Reduce Employment for Ethnic Minorities?
Political entrepreneurs and pork-barrel spending
Public spending on health as political instrument? Regime-type dependency of public spending
Oil revenues, ethnic fragmentation and political transition of authoritarian regimes
Political campaign spending limits
Immigrants, ethnic identities and the nation-state
Ethnic Coalitions and the Logic of Political Survival in Authoritarian Regimes
Crises and conflicts in post-socialist societies : the role of ethnic, political and social identities
Writing Canadians : the literary construction of ethnic identities
Dominant national cultures and ethnic identities, Pt. A
Dominant national cultures and ethnic identities, Pt. B
Do Oppositional Identities Reduce Employment for Ethnic Minorities?
Do Oppositional Identities Reduce Employment for Ethnic Minorities?