Year: 1999
Type: article
Abstract: This paper seeks to address a significant gap in the current nationalist literature that has insufficiently examined the conditions under which an ethnic group or region will radicalise or, conversely, moderate its demands against the state centre.This study introduces a bargaining model to explore the process by which ethnic groups are mobilised and then de-mobilised, such that the extremity of their demands shift over time.Two arguments are given here.First, a group's structural characteristics (including its size and compactness) define the upper-limits of goals that groups are capable of pursuing against the centre.Second, the extremity of these claims is a joint function of: (1) the group's expected political or economic benefits of exercising its 'exit option' (the independent variable), and (2), the bargaining power and activities of a group's lobby state or organisation (the intervening variable).In putting forth this argument, I hope to explain how and why an ethnic group's demands can shift from extreme goals, such as broad territorial autonomy, to very moderate goals, such as affirmative action policies, and vice versa.Finally, this study suggests ways in which international organisations may intervene to ameliorate the intensity of ethnic conflict.
Source: Czech Sociological Review
Author: Erin Jenne
Institution: Stanford University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W3033867408