Promoting Peace and Democratic Stability in Divided African Societies

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel examines policy interventions and institutional designs aimed at fostering democratic stability and lasting peace in multi-ethnic African states. Primarily using natural or field experiments, the papers assess means to improve a range of outcomes, including ethnic cooperation, democratic accountability, and violent conflict, which are key to democratic stability. Collectively, the papers question whether governments or other actors can engineer a peaceful, cooperative multi-ethnic democracy, and what the most effective method is to do so. Several papers focus on interventions which aim to have macro effects by making micro-level changes in social norms. First, examining the case of a papal visit to South Sudan, Graham finds that pro-peace radio messages disseminated by elites can change norms around conflict and reduce violence. Using survey data from the National Youth Service in Nigeria, Gilchrist similarly investigates whether elite pro-unity messages can change norms around inter-ethnic cooperation, and finds these messages can be as powerful as inter-ethnic contact. Also in Nigeria, Castradori finds in a field experiment that holding deliberative townhalls between legislators and constituents can build greater support for democratic norms and preferences for inter-ethnic political cooperation. Other papers on the panel focus on more institutional approaches to engineering democratic stability - and their potential unintended side effects. Studying Ethiopia, Samii and co-authors determine that ethnic federalism can decrease horizontal inequalities between groups – alleviating a major driver of ethnic conflict – but may also reinforce national imbalances in power. Finally, in Ghana, Ibrahim finds that, while making electoral districts more competitive risks increasing instability and corruption, this effect is offset by the benefits of increased politician-citizen interaction, responsiveness, and inter-ethnic cooperation within districts. Taken together, these five papers demonstrate the nuances behind efforts to improve social cohesion and democratic stability within Africa. The panel will offer useful discussion and guidance on which approaches are likely to succeed, and which may falter or even backfire.

Sub Unit

• Division 53: African Politics

Individual Presentations

• Preaching Peace: The Impact of Pro-peace Messages on Civil Conflict - Jimmy Graham, New York University

• Building Ethnic Tolerance and National Unity in Nigeria’s National Youth Service - Narrelle Gilchrist, Princeton University

• Seeing beyond Clientelism: An Experiment on Constituent Consultation in Nigeria - Marco Castradori, Princeton University

• Ethnic Federalism and Horizontal Inequality: The Case of Education in Ethiopia - Cyrus Samii, New York University; Sorana Acris, New York University; Elisabeth King, New York University

• Democratic Accountability: Citizen-Elite Relations under Incumbent Disadvantage - Rasheed Ibrahim, University of Notre Dame

Chair

• Megan Turnbull University of Georgia

Discussants

• Gwyneth McClendon New York University

• Donghyun Danny Choi Brown University