Within Ethnic Population Inequality and within Self-Determination Movement Violence

Abstract

Dual bargaining commonly characterizes a number of self-determination (SD) conflicts. SD organizations making self-determination claims contest the state but also contest rival SD organizations. This article examines variation in SD organization violence against other SD organizations. It hypothesizes that (i) higher levels of ethnic population inequality (WPI) are pivotal for explaining violence between SD organizations, and (ii) the relationship occurs at higher rates when an SD organization in the SD movement has previously used violence against the state. Survey-based data on WPI from 1992 to 2005 and SD organization violence demonstrate that higher WPI associates with an increased probability of an SD organization using violence against other SD organizations. The association is driven by situations in which an SD organization within the SD movement previously used violence against the state. The findings are robust to secondary analysis at the ethnic group level, inclusion of additional covariates, sensitivity tests for omitted variable bias, various model specifications, subset analyses, matching techniques and tests for reverse causality. This article demonstrates that ethnic population inequality levels as well as SD organization interactions with the state may have meaningful consequences for violent behavior between SD organizations.