IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/joupea/v59y2022i6p860-875.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

State weakness and support for ethnic violence in Southern Kyrgyzstan

Author

Listed:
  • Konstantin Ash

    (School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs, University of Central Florida)

Abstract

Does state weakness increase support for ethnic violence? This study proposes individuals who feel insecure due to state weakness are more likely to support interethnic violence conditional on exposure to chauvinist messaging. Support for interethnic violence is evaluated through a survey experiment in Southern Kyrgyzstan. The results show random assignment of chauvinist nationalist rhetoric only induces support for interethnic violence among respondents who trust informal non-state actors from their ethnic group to provide them security. The findings suggest state weakness leads individuals to view their ethnic group as an alternative provider of security and that when primed by chauvinist rhetoric, these individuals become more supportive of violence on their group’s behalf. A case study of the 2010 riots in the Southern Kyrgyz city of Osh illustrates how underlying support for violence may escalate to actual violence as a result of state breakdown, examining events in the months after the Kyrgyz state lost authority following the April 2010 revolution. Jointly, the survey findings and case study illustrate pathways for violence in ethnically divided low-capacity environments and potential drawbacks from protest-oriented revolutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Konstantin Ash, 2022. "State weakness and support for ethnic violence in Southern Kyrgyzstan," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 59(6), pages 860-875, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:joupea:v:59:y:2022:i:6:p:860-875
    DOI: 10.1177/00223433211055581
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00223433211055581
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00223433211055581?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shesterinina, Anastasia, 2016. "Collective Threat Framing and Mobilization in Civil War," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 110(3), pages 411-427, August.
    2. Eva Vivalt, 2015. "Heterogeneous Treatment Effects in Impact Evaluation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 467-470, May.
    3. Scacco, Alexandra & Warren, Shana S., 2018. "Can Social Contact Reduce Prejudice and Discrimination? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Nigeria," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 112(3), pages 654-677.
    4. Toha, Risa J., 2017. "Political Competition and Ethnic Riots in Democratic Transition: A Lesson from Indonesia," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(3), pages 631-651, July.
    5. Horowitz, Joel L. & Manski, Charles F., 1998. "Censoring of outcomes and regressors due to survey nonresponse: Identification and estimation using weights and imputations," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 37-58, May.
    6. Nick Megoran, 2013. "Shared Space, Divided Space: Narrating Ethnic Histories of Osh," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(4), pages 892-907, April.
    7. Cederman, Lars-Erik & Weidmann, Nils B. & Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede, 2011. "Horizontal Inequalities and Ethnonationalist Civil War: A Global Comparison," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 105(3), pages 478-495, August.
    8. Fearon, James D. & Laitin, David D., 2003. "Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 97(1), pages 75-90, February.
    9. William Reno, 2002. "The Politics of Insurgency in Collapsing States," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 837-858, November.
    10. Sniderman, Paul M. & Hagendoorn, Louk & Prior, Markus, 2004. "Predisposing Factors and Situational Triggers: Exclusionary Reactions to Immigrant Minorities," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 98(1), pages 35-49, February.
    11. Scacco, Alexandra & Warren, Shana S., 2018. "Can Social Contact Reduce Prejudice and Discrimination? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Nigeria," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(3), pages 654-677, August.
    12. Kosuke Imai & Gary King & Elizabeth A. Stuart, 2008. "Misunderstandings between experimentalists and observationalists about causal inference," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 171(2), pages 481-502, April.
    13. Fearon, James D. & Laitin, David D., 1996. "Explaining Interethnic Cooperation," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 90(4), pages 715-735, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heidi Kaila & Saurabh Singhal & Divya Tuteja, 2017. "Do fences make good neighbours?: Evidence from an insurgency in India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-158, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Astghik Mavisakalyan & Yashar Tarverdi, 2023. "Identity and support for policies towards Indigenous people: evidence from Australia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 535-570, June.
    3. Unfried, Kerstin & Ibañez Diaz, Marcela & Restrepo-Plazaz, Lina Maria, 2022. "Discrimination in post-conflict settings: Experimental evidence from Colombia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    4. Alexander Kustov, 2017. "How ethnic structure affects civil conflict: A model of endogenous grievance," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 34(6), pages 660-679, November.
    5. Mehmet Gurses & Nicolas Rost, 2013. "Sustaining the peace after ethnic civil wars," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 30(5), pages 469-491, November.
    6. Carla Martinez Machain & Leo Rosenberg, 2018. "Domestic diversion and strategic behavior by minority groups," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 35(5), pages 427-450, September.
    7. Gerring, John & Thacker, Strom C. & Lu, Yuan & Huang, Wei, 2015. "Does Diversity Impair Human Development? A Multi-Level Test of the Diversity Debit Hypothesis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 166-188.
    8. Ang, James B. & Gupta, Satyendra Kumar, 2018. "Agricultural yield and conflict," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 397-417.
    9. Soham Das, 2019. "Ethnic Conflict in the Indian Subcontinent: Assessing the Impact of Multiple Cleavages," Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, , vol. 6(3), pages 229-253, December.
    10. Mehlum, Halvor & Ove Moene, Karl, 2011. "Aggressive elites and vulnerable entrepreneurs - trust and cooperation in the shadow of conflict," Memorandum 16/2010, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    11. Solveig Hillesund, 2022. "To fight or demonstrate? Micro foundations of inequality and conflict," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 39(2), pages 166-190, March.
    12. Antonela Miho & Alexandra Jarotschkin & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2024. "Diffusion of Gender Norms: Evidence from Stalin’s Ethnic Deportations," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 475-527.
    13. Humphreys, Macartan & Scacco, Alexandra, 2020. "The aggregation challenge," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    14. Sourav Bhattacharya & Joyee Deb & Tapas Kundu, 2015. "Mobility and Conflict," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 281-319, February.
    15. Sania Ashraf & Cristina Bicchieri & Upasak Das & Tanu Gupta & Alex Shpenev, 2024. "Learning from diversity: ``jati" fractionalization, social expectations and improved sanitation practices in India," Discussion Papers 24-01, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    16. Nicolas Berman & Mathieu Couttenier & Raphael Soubeyran, 2021. "Fertile Ground for Conflict," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 82-127.
    17. Pedro C. Vicente & Ines Vilela, 2020. "Preventing violent Islamic radicalization: experimental evidence on anti-social behavior," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2008, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    18. Dominic Rohner & Mathias Thoenig, 2021. "The Elusive Peace Dividend of Development Policy: From War Traps to Macro Complementarities," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 111-131, August.
    19. Carlo Koos, 2016. "Does violence pay? The effect of ethnic rebellion on overcoming political deprivation," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 33(1), pages 3-24, February.
    20. Vicente, Pedro C. & Vilela, Inês, 2022. "Preventing Islamic radicalization: Experimental evidence on anti-social behavior," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 474-485.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:joupea:v:59:y:2022:i:6:p:860-875. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.prio.no/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.