Ethnic Divisions Research Articles

Ethnic switching: Longitudinal evidence on prevalence, correlates, and implications for measuring ethnic segregation

Ethnic divisions are prominent in many countries and associated with various societal ills, ranging from discrimination to violence and intra-state conflict. Commonly seen as exogenous, individuals' ethnicity is not necessarily fixed or unmalleable, however. We first use individual-level panel data for Indonesia, the U.S. and India, to document the prevalence of generic, undirected intra-individual ethnicity change. Second, we focus on potential correlates of ethnic switching and find that ethnic switching is predictable and follows logical patterns. By zooming in on individuals’ choices to switch to a specific ethnicity, we similarly find strong evidence that such directed ethnic switching occurs systematically and is guided by deliberate individual decision making. Third, considering potential implications of endogenous ethnicity, we find that ethnic switching can severely inflate official numbers on ethnic segregation, specifically on marital endogamy. We conclude that ethnic switching is real and highly relevant for the study of ethnic diversity and segregation.

Religious Education as a Key for Restructuring for National Development in Nigeria

The question of “restructuring” for national development has taken the central stage in the political, social and economic life of the Nigeria nation. This question hangs on the understanding that Nigeria as a nation is bedevilled with ethnic divisions occasioned by distrust, suspicion and perceived marginalization. To this end, arguments abound that the entity called Nigeria is not yet a nation but a creation of the erstwhile colonial masters, to favour a particular ethnic nationality. Restructuring therefore is perceived as the only veritable solution to the problem of ethnic divisions in Nigeria, as this would enhance sustainable national development. This research submits that religious education is a fundamental key for restructuring for the enhancement of national development that is sustainable and enduring. It further proposes true Federalism as a system of government that would work pari-pasu with religion to achieve this goal of restructuring for sustainable development.

Segmental Volatility in Ethnically Divided Societies: (Re)assessing Party System Stability in Southeast Europe

AbstractThis article examines the role of ethnicity and ethnic parties as stabilizing factors in Southeast European party systems. It compares two ethnically divided countries in Southeast Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, where ethnic identities that form the political cleavage are firm, and Montenegro, where they are malleable. Theoretically, it addresses the debate between scholars who either find stability or instability in East European post-communist party systems. The article traces the role of ethnicity in the formation and development of electoral contests and compares the two cases by utilizing measures of block volatility, based on analysis of official electoral data. We argue that party systems in ethnically diverse countries are stable at the subsystems level, but unstable within them. In BiH, firm ethnic identity stabilizes the party system by limiting competition between blocks, leading to closure. Malleable ethnic identity in Montenegro opens competition to non-ethnic parties seeking to bridge ethnic divisions, leading to more instability. We find that party system dynamics in ethnically divided new democracies depend on identity rigidity and cleavage salience, in addition to levels of heterogeneity.

White Armband Day: From global social media campaign to transnational commemoration day

This article is concerned with White Armband Day ( Dan Bijelih Traka), marked on 31 May in memory of the genocidal campaign against Prijedor’s non-Serb population during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992–95). What started spontaneously in 2012 as a global social media campaign against genocide denial has become a commemoration day marked in Prijedor, the post-Yugoslav region, across the world and in virtual spaces. Its widespread recognition and impact on alternative memory discourses rendered it one of the most successful civil society initiatives engaging in dealing with the past in the region. Drawing on a transnational mobilisation perspective, the article explores how the initiative emerged and what factors contributed to White Armband Day’s establishment as a transnational commemoration day. Findings from multi-sited research indicate that beyond rapid online mobilisation, two prerequisites have been key to its success: displacement-based (trans)local networks of Prijedorčani and its ability to mobilise young people across ethnic divisions.

Consociational democracy, citizenship and the role of the EU in Kosovo’s contested state-building

Consociational democracy has increasingly been adopted as a useful approach for conflict transformation in ethnic and violently divided societies. Its ultimate purpose is to turn former rivals into governing allies by providing power-sharing arrangements. Through theoretically driven process tracing, based on Kosovo as a case study, this article explores whether and how consociationalism has affected peace- and state-building. By examining its application through institutional design, it investigates citizenship policy and the role of the European Union on fostering a multi-ethnic society. The article argues that the existing corporate consociational model has institutionalised ethnicity challenging democracy and statehood, and did not promote a shared identity. Therefore, to overcome ethnic division and strengthen state legitimacy, the paper proposes a modification of consociational democracy into a liberal type promoted by a more persuasive role of the EU.

2 - Violence, Identity Mobilization and the Reimagining of Biafra

The events leading to the Nigeria Civil War marked the triumph of force and violence over dialogue and negotiation as a means of conflict resolution. The success of the Nigerian state in imposing a military solution on the preceding political crisis, and then suppressing the ensuing Biafran rebellion, has had a lasting effect on state–society relations. As a result, the state has not refrained from using violence at the slightest provocation against competing and con- flicting ethno-religious groups. The tendency of the state to exercise domina- tion through the deployment of violence implies an ongoing crisis of state he- gemony rather than a resolution of civil unrest. This article argues that state violence was more important than ethnic divisions in triggering the secessionist attempt of Biafra, and has continued to create rather than resolve ethnic divi- sions across the country. The emergence in post-Civil War Nigeria of regimes that perpetrated or permitted mass violence against restive social groups re- mains critical to understanding the contemporary rise of ethno-nationalist move- ments and waning allegiance to the Nigerian state, particularly among the Igbo. The aim of the article is to underscore the understated salience of state violence in the debates on identity and citizenship in multi-ethnic societies.

Review: When Banana Ruled, by Mathilde Damoisel

Review: <i>When Banana Ruled</i>, by Mathilde Damoisel

Deepening or Diminishing Ethnic Divides? The Impact of Urban Migration in Kenya.

The data, code, and any additional materials required to replicate all analyses in this article are available on the American Journal of Political Science Dataverse within the Harvard Dataverse Network, at: http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/B8TWK2.

Cross‐ethnic appeals in plural democracies

AbstractWhether and how parties reach across ethnic lines matters for the quality of democracy, the state of interethnic relations and substantive minority representation in plural societies. Existing explanations have focused on how politicians facing electoral incentives to seek broader support attempt to either redefine or transcend ethnic identities, but have overlooked the various ways, in which candidates from one ethnic community often directly address the ethno‐political interests, concerns and demands of other communities whose votes are being courted. To address this gap, we introduce the concept and develop a typology of cross‐ethnic appeals in plural democracies. Drawing on primary research in India and Kenya—two countries with salient ethnic divisions and ethnic party systems—we show that cross‐ethnic appeals are common, follow the logic of our typology, and can result in increased resources and representation for some electorally pivotal minorities, even going beyond what coethnic politicians have offered. The article contributes to the emerging academic literature on how parties foster cross‐ethnic linkages in plural societies. Our argument has implications for ethnic boundaries, the structure of political cleavages and the substantive representation of minorities in multiethnic states.

Identity During a Pandemic: COVID-19 and Ethnic Divisions in the United States

During a crisis, does a community's ethnic composition influence policy efficiency? How do the effects of ethnic divisions differ from those of ethnic diversity? Despite the large body of work which considers ethnic composition, little attention has been given to how it matters for crisis-response policy. Using the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, we show that ethnic divisions, rather than ethnic diversity, significantly reduce the efficacy of crisis response. U.S. counties with high levels of ethnic divisions fared worse than their less-divided counterparts after lockdowns in both COVID-19 cases and related deaths. Ethnic diversity had little effect, except in areas with high racial segregation. Crisis-response policies led to smaller mobility reductions and less mask-wearing in ethnically divided counties. These results are not driven by a lack of physical public goods, socioeconomic differences, or by the prevalence of high-risk populations. Findings are robust to various strategies of causal identification and falsification checks. Our results suggest that policies promoting ethnic and racial integration can allay the negative social and economic impacts of crises.

Ethnic Divisions and the Onset of Civil Wars in Syria

While most civil wars seem to have an economic basis, they are generally pushed by political, ethnic, and religious differences. This paper attempts to identify the drivers of the Syrian civil war of 2011 by investigating the role of ethnic divisions in starting a conflict. We integrate a variety of variables such as excluded population, power-sharing, anocracy, ethnic groups in addition to a number of economic factors. The main results indicate that ethnicity does not seem to be a very important factor in starting both the civil and ethnic conflict in Syria, but it shows that the lack of power-sharing to be the most significant factor. Therefore, where power in Syria was not inclusive and shared among different demographic segments, such as religious or urban groups, it created upheavals between different groups, as some groups disidentify with the state, paving the way to causing the conflict. Economic factors also provide an explanation of the onset of conflicts in Syria. The paper offers detailed policy suggestions that could serve as a recovery mechanism for the Syrian crisis and a preventive measurement for its reoccurrence.

Brokers of Modernity: East Central Europe and the Rise of Modernist Architects, 1910–1950 by Martin Kohlrausch

Reviewed by: Brokers of Modernity: East Central Europe and the Rise of Modernist Architects, 1910–1950 by Martin Kohlrausch Emanuela Grama (bio) Martin Kohlrausch, Brokers of Modernity: East Central Europe and the Rise of Modernist Architects, 1910–1950 ( Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2019). Bibliography. Index. ISBN: 978-94-6270-172-4. Visionaries and vanguards. Powerful, bold, and cosmopolitan. Always daring more and wanting more – not just from institutions, governments, and their colleagues but also from themselves. This is the collective portrait that the historian Martin Kohlrausch draws for many of the architects professionally coming of age in Western and Central Europe during and after World War I. Kohlrausch argues that these architects as a particular professional group were agents of modernity. That is, they were experts who, by virtue of their profession and their cosmopolitan training, promoted new ideas about a social and political order intrinsically tied to urban living. His main aim is to show that these ideas about a novel way of living, working, and interacting in a spatially redefined and redesigned urban space were cosmopolitan because their promoters were themselves cosmopolitan – less inclined to abide by and believe in allegedly national differences and ethnic divides. The book is organized in six chapters that trace different aspects [End Page 302] of the architects' transformation into "brokers of modernity." Kohlrausch focuses on particular figures in the movement, and especially the architects living in Poland after World War I. The political landscape of the Polish Second Republic was fraught with internecine fights among different political factions. The line between democracy and authoritarianism became increasingly blurry especially during the Sanation (Sanacja) period (1926–1935). This was a state that wanted to mobilize all social spheres in order to gain further legitimacy for its populist agenda, which included providing better living conditions for citizens. Kohlrausch tries to place Poland in the context of the broader social and political changes occurring in Central Europe in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, the book would have benefited from a clearer discussion of what "modernization" and "modernism" meant for various national governments in the region and for the experts these governments financially supported (as well as relied on). This clarification is particularly important because some of the pro-modernization agendas were deeply tied to nationalist ideologies and programs of nation-building that were profoundly xenophobic. To what extent then did such complex allegiances apply to the international collaboration among architects across national boundaries? The evidence of extensive international collaborations among Polish, Hungarian, French, and German architects does not necessarily mean that each of these professional groups, and even individuals, understood and promoted abstract modernist ideas in the same way. The book's arguments would have been more nuanced if the author had analyzed the choices made by some of these architects in the light of the tension between their national loyalties and their pursuits of international collaboration. This is especially important because such a tension appears to have informed the workings of CIAM-Ost, an organization to which many of these architects devoted their energy and enthusiasm. CIAM-Ost was the "Eastern" branch of the CIAM (Congrès internationaux d'architecture modern), the organization established in 1928 by an international group of architects to promote a radically new urbanity, in which urban planning was grounded in "science, technology, rationalization, and efficiency" (P. 27). This organization is a key focus of the book, and the author draws on a wealth of sources (from periodicals to correspondence) to discuss in detail the ideological and practical agendas of the organization's founders. In doing so, he reveals the intricate but also volatile collaboration among different architects [End Page 303] involved in this network, as well as in the broader CIAM. Special attention is paid to a power couple of two Polish Jewish architects, Symon and Helena Syrkus, who became the leaders of the modernist movement in interwar Poland. Symon Syrkus knew how to promote his vision of a democratic urbanity, meaning "functional cities formed by apartment buildings made with new and affordable materials (steel), placed in the midst of green areas" (P. 147). He also knew how to make powerful government officials listen...

Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy by Emily Wilcox

Reviewed by: Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy by Emily Wilcox Liang Luollu222@uky.edu Emily Wilcox. Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy. Oakland: University of California Press, 2019. 304 pp. $34.95 (paper), open access at https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.58. In Revolutionary Bodies, Emily Wilcox infuses a deep ethnographic sensibility into an exciting historical project, powerfully asserting the relevance of dance in modern Chinese cultural studies and in the cultural history of the People's Republic of China (PRC). She uses "Chinese dance" to refer to "a contemporary concert genre that developed during the mid-twentieth century," often encompassing "Chinese classical dance" (中国古典舞 Zhongguo gudian du) and "Chinese national folk dance" (中国民族民间舞 Zhongguo minzu minjian wu) (2). Consequently, the subtitle of the book, "Chinese Dance and Socialist Legacy," refers to the socialist legacy of Chinese dance in this specific usage, as a dance genre developed during the mid-twentieth century in China and parallel to ballet and modern dance, among others. Wilcox argues that three core commitments: "kinesthetic nationalism," "ethnic and spatial inclusiveness," and "dynamic inheritance," have defined the genre of Chinese dance throughout its history of innovation. "Kinesthetic nationalism" emphasizes Chinese dance's focus on its artistic form and its bringing together of the local and the contemporary; "ethnic and spatial inclusiveness" is the idea that Chinese dance should include styles and artists from all ethnic communities and geographic regions across China, while "dynamic inheritance" is a theory of cultural transformation that compels Chinese dance artists to research existing performance forms while also generating original interpretations of these forms (6–7). These core commitments, I would argue, are also the core of the socialist legacy of Chinese dance Wilcox uncovers in this book: its focus on connecting local and contemporary artistic forms, its radical representation of marginalized, diverse communities, and its continuous emphasis on creativity and innovation in order to transform existing performance forms. Centering on the path Trinidad-born and European-educated Dai Ailian (戴爱莲 1916–2006) followed from ballet to modern dance to Chinese dance, the first chapter of the book sets the tone for a deep inquiry into the transition from a vision of modernity as represented by assimilating into Euro-American culture to one of asserting distinctive local identities. Wilcox regards Dai as the first to systematically reflect on what new aesthetic forms Chinese dance should take from the 1940s onward, both in writings and in performances. According to Wilcox, Dai's "Frontier Dance," among others, embodies the three core commitments of kinesthetic nationalism, ethnic and spatial inclusiveness, and dynamic inheritance, which drew on local sources from across the country, bridging geographical, religious, and ethnic divides. Making extensive use of Chinese-language dance scholarship produced in China, Wilcox presents the Korean dancer Choe Seung-hui (崔承喜 최승희1911–1969) in chapter 2 as another foundational figure in the history of Chinese dance, particularly in the fields of Chinese classical dance and Chinese Korean dance. Choe's unique contribution, according to Wilcox, lies in her creation of a new dance style by studying and adapting elements of traditional-style xiqu (戲曲) performance. As a result, the Chinese dance curriculum of the leading dance school in China, Beijing Dance School, "skillfully united what were now the three established streams of Chinese dance—Han folk dance (inherited from New [End Page E-36] Yangge [新秧歌; a wartime dance movement]), minority dance (inherited from "Frontier Dance"), and xiqu dance (inherited from Choe's program)" (76). In chapter 3, Wilcox convincingly argues that the late 1950s and early 1960s constituted the golden age of Chinese dance as that era witnessed continued innovations in choreographic form with the emergence of a new, full-length, narrative Chinese dance form, the "national dance drama" (民族舞剧 minzu wuju), as well as the expansion of the genre to global visibility through circulations of Chinese dance abroad. What impresses this reviewer particularly is Wilcox's sensitive approach to the details in the narrative dance form and expert dance analysis of its use of Chinese dance choreography, while recognizing the propagandist nature of these works (without naming them that way). Only someone of Wilcox's background, a dance scholar and practitioner trained as an anthropologist...

Из истории проектной культуры Среднего Поволжья: санно-тележное производство середины XIX – первой половины XX вв.

The origins of design lie in the traditional forms of design culture of pre-industrial societies, expressed in handicrafts and folk crafts. Sledges and carts production (and the associated manufacture of wheels and rims) on the Middle Volga, as well as throughout Russia in the mid-19 – first half of the 20 centuries, was a common and traditional type of craft activity, handicraft. Due to the multi-ethnicity of the region, we can talk about its small local features — the specifics of production processes, decor, and the ethnic division of labor. The exchange of cultural forms led to the typification of tools and techniques in the sledges and carts production of all ethnic groups of the Middle Volga — Mordovians, Tatars, Chuvashs. The reasons for this alignment are the practical benefits and long cohabitation of peoples in the region, which through cross-borrowing determined the general economic structure and nature of the project culture. Sledges and carts production of the Middle Volga region from the mid-19 – first half of the 20 centuries was realized through traditional design forms (sledges such as dróvni, rózval`ni, koshévny`e; carts such as pólok, ry`dván, dolgúsha, drógi, tarantás). The paper pays particular attention to the analysis of their manufacturing technologies. The study of various aspects of the sledges and carts production of the Middle Volga region will allow enriching theoretical ideas in the field of studying the traditional design culture of the region. Some of the points and conclusions of the study may be useful in designing an urban environment.

Cyprus dispute: Between contested territories and spontaneous reappropriation.

This paper discusses the concepts of conflict and border in relation to place and identity reflecting on narratives and meanings of dividing urban and civil borders. It takes the divided Greek and Turkish society living in Nicosia as a case study. The significance of the wall, as an explicit expression of division, is discussed but also overturned by looking at its closure and its permeability when Nicosia’s sealed borders opened again for everyday crossing. The inquiry speculates an alternative path informed by Glissant’s concept of Opacity, Agamben and Nancy’s non-essentialist approaches non-community to look at entangled deep-rooted ethnic divisions and fragments of shared cultures. To inform urban epistemology, two bottom-up examples are analysed using De Certeau’s concepts of everyday life: Home for Cooperation, which is a neutral space in the buffer zone for unified collectively and Occupy Buffer-zone Movement, which has occupied a non-place and transformed it into a public square through grassroots activism. The paper highlights that in order to draw a feasible future of Cyprus, an anti-essentialist acceptance of the multiple and eclectic origins of the context is needed. In this sense, the tangible and intangible meaning of division requires a shift of meaning, from delimitation, classification, separation to a porous element of balance and calibration. The top-down urban models and concept of inclusiveness have been shaken by the temporal civic grassroots communities, and this demonstrates that collective participation fosters the reappropriation of public space, overturning the perception and the experience of the border of differences. This contributes to theorizing a critical and reflective,rather than idealistic, practice of participation in urban design.

The Political Boundaries of Ethnic Divisions

We use a policy experiment in Indonesia to show how local political boundaries affect ethnic tension. Redrawing district borders along group lines reduces conflict. However, the gains in stability are undone or even reversed when new boundaries increase ethnic polarization. Greater polarization leads to more violence around majoritarian elections but has little effect around lower-stakes, proportional representation elections. These results point to distinct incentives for violence in winner-take-all settings with contestable public resources. Overall, our findings illustrate the promise and pitfalls of redrawing borders in diverse countries where it is infeasible for each group to have its own administrative unit. (JEL D72, D74, J15, O15, O17, O18)

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME AND 10 KGS RICE NEED A PERSON TO INDIAN PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO HUNGER PROBLEM OF SCHEDULED TRIBE IN RURAL ANDHRA PRADESH

Universal Basic Income and 10 kgs Rice need a person to Indian People with Special Reference to Hunger Problem of Scheduled Tribe in Rural Andhra Pradesh &amp; Dr. ERICHARLA RAJU, UGC Dr.S.Radha Krishna Post Doctoral Research Associate (5years) (Double PDF), Dept of Economics, Acharya Nagarjuana University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Dr. ERICHARLA RAJU ABSTRACT India has the second largest concentration of tribal population in the world next to Africa. For centuries they lived a life of geographical isolation. In India primitive tribes have lived for thousands of years in forests and hills without any type of contacts with centers of civilization. There is a need for integrating them into the main stream of the society as rightful members, failing which, the ethnic division would persist and deepen, which is dangerous for the very existence of human sanity. Indian population consists of 8 per cent of tribal population in the country. Present article discuss about the hunger problem of scheduled tribe in rural Andhra Pradesh. The presents article examined the an analysis of agriculture status of scheduled tribes in India with special reference to agriculture status of scheduled tribes in Andhra Pradesh rural, in my research Out of per 1000 distribution of rural scheduled tribes’ households do not possess land the 101 households in India. Out of per 1000 distribution of Rural households of different social groups do not possess the land 83 households in all India. Out of per 1000 distribution of rural households of scheduled tribes do not have land 372 household in all rural India. Out of per 1000 distribution of rural households of different social groups do not have land 454 household in all rural India. In my research, Out of 459 respondents majority of 94.6% (434) respondents do not possess the land, and another 5.4% (25) respondents possess the land. Maximum value of the land of one acre of respondents is 5,50,000/- and the minimum value of the land of one acre of respondents is 90,000 /-. The minimum spent the money on Fertilizers and other inputs to one acre is 1900/-, the maximum spent the money on Fertilizers and other inputs to one acre is 12000/-.The maximum total cost of one acre is 60000/-, the minimum total cost of one acre of the respondents is 4900/- . The maximum one acre products value is 40,000/-, the minimum one acre production value of the respondents is 9000/-. The maximum total profit of products is 30,000/-, minimum total profit of production of respondents is 4970 /-. The maximum total loss by products is 55,000/-, the minimum total loss of the respondents by products is 13200/-. Out of 12 respondents majority of 83.2(10) are having the cows, and 16.7 %( 2) are having the buffalos. The maximum value of the animals is 90,000/-, the minimum value of the animals is 23000/-.

Izbori u Bosni i Hercegovini za Konstituantu Kraljevine Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca i pretvaranje društvenih rascjepa u političke podjele

Based on the available literature, social division is defined as a measure that separates community members into groups. When it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina and its population who spoke the same language and shared the same territory, the confessional (millet) division from the time of Turkish rule, as a fundamental social fact on the basis of which the Serbian and Croatian national identity of the Bosnian Catholic and the Orthodox population remained in Bosnia and Herzegovina even after the departure of the Austro-Hungarian administration in 1918. Historical confessional and ethnic divisions that developed in the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian periods became the key and only basis for political and party gatherings and are important for today's Bosnia and Herzegovina segmented society. The paper attempts to examine the applicability of the analytical framework (theory) of Lipset and Rokan (formulated in the 1960s) on social divisions in the case of the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Constituent Assembly of the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in 1920? Elements for the answer can be offered by the analysis of the relationship between the ethno-confessional affiliation of citizens, on the one hand, party affiliation, on the other and their acceptance of certain political attitudes and values on the third side. If there is a significant interrelation, it could be concluded that at least indirectly the lines of social divisions condition the party-political division. The political system, of course, is not just a simple reflex of social divisions. One should first try to find the answer to the initial questions: what are the key lines of social divisions? How do they overlap and intersect? How and under what conditions does the transformation of social divisions into a party system take place? The previously stated social divisions passed through the filter of political entrepreneurs and returned as a political offer in which the specific interests and motives of (ethnic) political entrepreneurs were included and incorporated. After the end of the First World War, ethnic, confessional and cultural divisions were (and still are) very present in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The key lines of division in the ethnic, confessional and cultural spheres, their development and predominantly multipolar (four-polar) character through changes in the forms and breadth of interest and political organization have influenced political options (divisions) and further complicating and strengthening B&amp;H political splits. The concept of cleavage is a mediating concept between the concept of social stratification and its impact on political grouping and political institutions and the political concept that emphasizes the reciprocal influence of political institutions and decisions on changes in social structure. Thanks to political mobilization in ethno-confessional, cultural and class divisions, then the "history of collective memory" and inherited ethno-confessional conflicts, mass political party movements were formed very quickly in Bosnia and Herzegovina as an integral part of the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs ( Yugoslav Muslim organization, Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav Democratic Party, Croatian Farmers' Party, Croatian People's Party, Farmers' Union, People's Radical Party ...). The lines of social divisions overlap with ethnic divisions (Yugoslav Muslim Organization, Croatian Farmers' Party, Croatian People's Party, Farmers' Union, People's Radical Party ...) but also intersect them so that several ethnic groups can coexist within the same party-political framework (Communist Party of Yugoslavia). The significant, even crucial influence of party affiliation and identification on the adoption of certain attitudes speaks of the strong feedback of the parties and even of some kind of created party identity. The paper discusses the first elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina organized during the Kingdom of SCS and the formation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's political spectrum on the basic lines of social divisions.

Slavic activists and socio-political situation in Bosnia at the turn of the 19th century. The Foundations of the contemporary ethnic divisions

The aim of the article is to show the forms and content of public and political activity of the Slavic elites in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the time of Habsburg rule (1878–1914). The research into the press releases and academic publications allows to show the most prominent circles and individuals who aspired to be the representatives of the people, defined in accordance with ethnic and religious divisions. These groups are characterised via an analysis of the correlation between the socio-political circumstances in Bosnia and the external influences (such as ideologies, personal and organisation relations, the impact of the state authorities). The political stances among the most prominent circles are portrayed in the context of the legal and institutional solutions regarding Bosnia, as well as the ethnic and religious policy of the Habsburg administration.

A Systematic Review of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Maternal Health Outcomes among Asians/Pacific Islanders.

Efforts to improve women’s health and to reduce maternal mortality worldwide have led to a notable reduction in the global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) over the past two decades. However, it is clear that maternal health outcomes are not equitable, especially when analyzing the scope of maternal health disparities across “developed” and “underdeveloped” nations. This study evaluates recent MMR scholarship with a particular focus on the racial and ethnic divisions that impact on maternal health outcomes. The study contributes to MMR research by analyzing the racial and ethnic disparities that exist in the US, especially among Asian and Pacific Islander (API) subgroups. The study applies exclusionary criteria to 710 articles and subsequently identified various maternal health issues that disproportionately affect API women living in the US. In applying PRISMA review guidelines, the study produced 22 peer-reviewed articles that met inclusionary and exclusionary criteria for this review. The data analysis identified several maternal health foci: obstetric outcomes, environmental exposure, obstetric care and quality measures, and pregnancy-related measures. Only eight of the 22 reviewed studies disaggregated API populations by focusing on specific subgroups of APIs, which signals a need to reconceptualize marginalized API communities’ inclusion in health care systems, to promote their equitable access to care, and to dissolve health disparities among racial and ethnic divides. Several short- and long-term initiatives are recommended to develop and implement targeted health interventions for API groups, and thus provide the groundwork for future empirically driven research among specific API subgroups in the US.