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Replication Data for: Government Policies, New Voter Coalitions, and the Emergence of an Ethnic Dimension in Party Systems

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data for: Government Policies, New Voter Coalitions, and the Emergence of an Ethnic Dimension in Party Systems
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/IECK9V
 
Creator Mor, Maayan
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Conventional theories of ethnic politics argue that political entrepreneurs form ethnic parties where there is ethnic diversity. Yet empirical research finds that diversity is a weak predictor for the success of ethnic parties. When does ethnicity become a major element of party competition? Scholars have explained the emergence of an ethnic dimension in party systems as the result of institutions, mass organizations, and elite initiatives. These factors, however, can evolve in response to an emerging ethnic coalition of voters. I advance a new theory that ethnic cleavages emerge when voters seek to form a parliamentary opposition to government policies that create grievances along ethnic identities. I test the theory on rare cases of government policies in Prussia between 1848-1873 that aggrieved Catholics but were not based on existing policies or initiated instrumentally by entrepreneurs to encourage ethnic competition. I show through process-tracing, case comparisons, and statistical analysis of electoral returns that Catholics voted together when aggrieved by policies regardless of the actions of political entrepreneurs. In contrast, when policies were neutral to Catholics, the Catholic party dissolved.
 
Subject Social Sciences
Ethnic cleavages, party system change, Germany
 
Contributor Mor, Maayan