IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/uma/periwp/wp105.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Distributional Conflict, The State, and Peacebuilding in Burundi

Author

Listed:
  • Léonce Ndikumana

Abstract

This paper examines the causes of conflict in Burundi and discusses strategies for building peace. The analysis of the complex relationships between distribution and group dynamics reveals that these relationships are reciprocal, implying that distribution and group dynamics are endogenous. The nature of endogenously generated group dynamics determines the type of preferences (altruistic or exclusionist), which in turn determines the type of allocative institutions and policies that prevail in the political and economic system. While unequal distribution of resources may be socially inefficient, it nonetheless can be rational from the perspective of the ruling elite, especially because inequality perpetuates dominance. However, because unequal distribution of resources generates conflict, maintaining a system based on inequality is difficult because it requires ever increasing investments in repression. It is therefore clear that if the new Burundian leadership is serious about building peace, it must engineer institutions that uproot the legacy of discrimination and promote equal opportunity for social mobility for all members of ethnic groups and regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Léonce Ndikumana, 2005. "Distributional Conflict, The State, and Peacebuilding in Burundi," Working Papers wp105, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    • Handle: RePEc:uma:periwp:wp105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://per.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/working_papers/working_papers_101-150/WP105.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2002. "On the Incidence of Civil War in Africa," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 46(1), pages 13-28, February.
    2. Paul Collier, 2000. "How to Reduce Corruption," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 12(2), pages 191-205.
    3. Grossman, Herschel I, 1999. "Kleptocracy and Revolutions," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 51(2), pages 267-283, April.
    4. Léonce Ndikumana, 2001. "Fiscal Policy, Conflict, and Reconstruction in Burundi and Rwanda," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2001-62, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2004. "Greed and grievance in civil war," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 563-595, October.
    6. Alberto Alesina & Eliana La Ferrara, 2003. "Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2028, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    7. Paul Collier, 2000. "Ethnicity, Politics and Economic Performance," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 225-245, November.
    8. F Ngaruko & JD Nkurunziza, 2000. "An economic interpretation of conflict in Burundi," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 9(3), pages 370-409.
    9. Ndikumana, Leonce, 2004. "Additionality of debt relief and debt forgiveness, and implications for future volumes of official assistance," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 325-340.
    10. Johannes Fedderke & Charles Simkins, 2012. "Economic Growth in South Africa," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 176-208.
    11. Kisangani Emizet & Léonce Ndikumana, 2003. "The Economics of Civil War: The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo," Working Papers wp63, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    12. B Bigombe & P Collier & N Sambanis, 2000. "Policies for building post-conflict peace," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 9(3), pages 323-348.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Devon E.A. Curtis, 2015. "Development assistance and the lasting legacies of rebellion in Burundi and Rwanda," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(7), pages 1365-1381, July.
    2. Xinhai Lu & Zhoumi Li & Hongzheng Wang & Yifeng Tang & Bixia Hu & Mingyue Gong & Yulong Li, 2022. "Evaluating Impact of Farmland Recessive Morphology Transition on High-Quality Agricultural Development in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-19, March.
    3. Isabel Ruiz & Carlos Vargas-Silva, 2022. "Refugee return and social cohesion," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 678-698.
    4. Devon E. A. Curtis, 2014. "Local Agency, Development Assistance and the Legacies of Rebellion in Burundi and Rwanda," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-128, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Léonce Ndikumana, 2013. "Overcoming Low Political Equilibrium in Africa: Institutional Changes for Inclusive Development," Working Papers wp331, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    6. Chenlu Zhu & Xiaolin Dong & Liren Ding & Chen Lin, 2021. "Research on the Driving Factors for the Development of Inclusive Finance in Rural Commercial Banks: Market Competition or Government Intervention?," Businesses, MDPI, vol. 2(1), pages 1-18, December.
    7. Curtis, Devon E. A., 2014. "Local agency, development assistance and the legacies of rebellion in Burundi and Rwanda," WIDER Working Paper Series 128, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    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. Robert MacCulloch & Silvia Pezzini, 2010. "The Roles of Freedom, Growth, and Religion in the Taste for Revolution," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 329-358, May.
    2. Cemal Eren Arbatlı & Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2020. "Diversity and Conflict," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 727-797, March.
    3. Francesco Caselli & Wilbur John Coleman II, 2013. "On The Theory Of Ethnic Conflict," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11, pages 161-192, January.
    4. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2016. "Linguistic Diversity, Standardization, and Disenfranchisement: Measurement and Consequences," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/277407, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. Jennifer Oetzel & Chang Hoon Oh, 2019. "Melting pot or tribe? Country-level ethnic diversity and its effect on subsidiaries," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(1), pages 37-61, March.
    6. Christopher Blattman & Edward Miguel, 2010. "Civil War," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 3-57, March.
    7. Ann-Sofie Isaksson, 2011. "Social divisions and institutions: assessing institutional parameter variation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 147(3), pages 331-357, June.
    8. Müller, Benjamin & Ragoussis, Alexandros, 2016. "Minorities and trade: what do we know, and how can policymakers take it into account?," IDOS Discussion Papers 11/2016, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    9. Phanindra V. Wunnava & Aniruddha Mitra & Robert E. Prasch, 2015. "Globalization and the Ethnic Divide: Recent Longitudinal Evidence," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1475-1492, November.
    10. Pelle Ahlerup & Ola Olsson, 2012. "The roots of ethnic diversity," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 71-102, June.
    11. Marie-Anne Valfort, 2007. "Containing ethnic conflicts through ethical voting? Evidence from Ethiopia," HiCN Working Papers 35, Households in Conflict Network.
    12. Christopher Blattman, 2009. "Civil War: A Review of Fifty Years of Research," Working Papers id:2231, eSocialSciences.
    13. Attiat F. Ott & Sang Hoo Bae, 2011. "Modeling Mass Killing: For Gain or Ethnic Cleansing?," Chapters, in: Derek L. Braddon & Keith Hartley (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Conflict, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2013. "Linguistic diversity, standardization and disenfranchisement. Measurement and consequences," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/152436, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    15. Indra de Soysa & Synøve Almås, 2019. "Does Ethnolinguistic Diversity Preclude Good Governance? A Comparative Study with Alternative Data, 1990‐2015," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 604-636, November.
    16. 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.
    17. Ola Olsson & Heather Congdon Fors, 2004. "Congo: The Prize of Predation," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 41(3), pages 321-336, May.
    18. Janus, Thorsten & Riera-Crichton, Daniel, 2015. "Economic shocks, civil war and ethnicity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 32-44.
    19. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2020. "The Economics of Language," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 348-404, June.
    20. Jang, Youngook, 2018. "The road home: the role of ethnicity in the post-Soviet migration," Economic History Working Papers 90574, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Burundi; ethnicity; civil war; distributional conflict;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:uma:periwp:wp105. 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: Judy Fogg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/permaus.html .

    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.