Ethnic cabinet diversity, co-ethnic representation, and attitudes toward government

Abstract

ABSTRACT Does co-ethnic cabinet representation change how people respond to increasing ethnic cabinet diversity? Existing literature studies co-ethnic representation and cabinet diversity separately. I argue that the interaction between co-ethnic cabinet representation and ethnic cabinet diversity lowers government confidence and impacts feelings of ethnic fairness. Using a newly constructed dataset linking both the World Values Survey and the Afrobarometer to country-year measures of ethnic cabinet diversity, I find that interacting co-ethnic representation with ethnic cabinet diversity largely has the expected results. Country leaders should think carefully about how to manage cabinet appointments in order to improve attitudes toward government.