Does Political Competition Lessen Ethnic Discrimination? Evidence from Sri Lanka

The impact of political competition on ethnic discrimination remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, this paper explores the relationship between the level of political competition and the probability of receiving government transfers among ethnic minorities in Sri Lanka in the run up to th...

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Main Author:	Sharif, Iffath A.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Subjects:	Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government H110 Welfare and Poverty: Government Programs Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs I380 Economics of Minorities and Races Non-labor Discrimination J150 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4940

id	okr-10986-4940
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-49402021-04-23T14:02:20Z Does Political Competition Lessen Ethnic Discrimination? Evidence from Sri Lanka Sharif, Iffath A. Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government H110 Welfare and Poverty: Government Programs Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs I380 Economics of Minorities and Races Non-labor Discrimination J150 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 The impact of political competition on ethnic discrimination remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, this paper explores the relationship between the level of political competition and the probability of receiving government transfers among ethnic minorities in Sri Lanka in the run up to the national elections of 2000. The paper shows that making politicians dependent on the votes of members of ethnic groups other their own can encourage moderation in discriminatory practices towards ethnic minorities. Specifically we find that political competition positively influenced the distribution of government food stamps among Sri Lankan Tamils, who otherwise are less likely to receive food stamps relative to the Sinhalese majority. The negative impact of political competition on discrimination is higher when minorities form part of swing constituencies than when they form part of the base support for political parties. Lessons learnt here suggest that having built-in incentives in the design of the electoral process for intergroup bargaining and cooperation in countries with ethnically heterogeneous societies can be an effective restraint on ethnic discrimination. This is consistent with other research that considers political institutions to be a key lever for making ethnically divided societies more inclusive. 2012-03-30T07:30:29Z 2012-03-30T07:30:29Z 2011 Journal Article Journal of Development Economics 03043878 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4940 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article Sri Lanka
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
topic	Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government H110 Welfare and Poverty: Government Programs Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs I380 Economics of Minorities and Races Non-labor Discrimination J150 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150
spellingShingle	Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government H110 Welfare and Poverty: Government Programs Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs I380 Economics of Minorities and Races Non-labor Discrimination J150 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Sharif, Iffath A. Does Political Competition Lessen Ethnic Discrimination? Evidence from Sri Lanka
geographic_facet	Sri Lanka
relation	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description	The impact of political competition on ethnic discrimination remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, this paper explores the relationship between the level of political competition and the probability of receiving government transfers among ethnic minorities in Sri Lanka in the run up to the national elections of 2000. The paper shows that making politicians dependent on the votes of members of ethnic groups other their own can encourage moderation in discriminatory practices towards ethnic minorities. Specifically we find that political competition positively influenced the distribution of government food stamps among Sri Lankan Tamils, who otherwise are less likely to receive food stamps relative to the Sinhalese majority. The negative impact of political competition on discrimination is higher when minorities form part of swing constituencies than when they form part of the base support for political parties. Lessons learnt here suggest that having built-in incentives in the design of the electoral process for intergroup bargaining and cooperation in countries with ethnically heterogeneous societies can be an effective restraint on ethnic discrimination. This is consistent with other research that considers political institutions to be a key lever for making ethnically divided societies more inclusive.
format	Journal Article
author	Sharif, Iffath A.
author_facet	Sharif, Iffath A.
author_sort	Sharif, Iffath A.
title	Does Political Competition Lessen Ethnic Discrimination? Evidence from Sri Lanka
title_short	Does Political Competition Lessen Ethnic Discrimination? Evidence from Sri Lanka
title_full	Does Political Competition Lessen Ethnic Discrimination? Evidence from Sri Lanka
title_fullStr	Does Political Competition Lessen Ethnic Discrimination? Evidence from Sri Lanka
title_full_unstemmed	Does Political Competition Lessen Ethnic Discrimination? Evidence from Sri Lanka
title_sort	does political competition lessen ethnic discrimination? evidence from sri lanka
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4940
_version_	1764393324803784704

Does Political Competition Lessen Ethnic Discrimination? Evidence from Sri Lanka

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