This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (5) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Chandra, K. Articles by Wilkinson, S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Measuring the Effect of "Ethnicity"

New York University

Steven Wilkinson

University of Chicago

Most tests of hypotheses about the effects of "ethnicity" on outcomes use data or measures that confuse or conflate what are termed ethnic structure and ethnic practice. This article presents a conceptualization of ethnicity that makes the distinction between these concepts clear; it demonstrates how confusion between structure and practice hampers the ability to test theories; and it presents two new measures of ethnic practice—ECI (the ethnic concentration index) and EVOTE (the percentage of the vote obtained by ethnic parties)—that illustrate the pay-offs of making this distinction and collecting data accordingly, using examples from the civil war literature.

Key Words: ethnicity • identity • conflict • civil war • constructivist • theory • operationalize

Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 41, No. 4-5, 515-563 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0010414007313240


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?