Ethnic Loyalties Research Articles

Broken Promises: Revisiting the Commitment Problem and the Treaties of Fort Laramie

The ethnic commitment problem is thought to complicate interethnic bargaining because as power shifts, the stronger party might erode an agreement through ‘salami slicing.’ Anecdotally salami slicing can be effective, but it is unclear if a salami slicing strategy is feasible over the long term. A case study of the events following the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie demonstrates that while a calibrated erosion of an agreement is possible, in practice salami tactics exist as part of a larger collection of strategies for altering agreements. The article concludes with a typology of strategies for effecting agreement change.

The battle for Central: ethnicity, urbanization and citizenship in Kenya’s 2022 general elections

ABSTRACT In Kenya’s 2022 general elections, presidential candidate William Ruto did something unusual – he dominated the vote in the heartlands of one of his main political rivals, President Uhuru Kenyatta. In turn, Ruto’s ability to win power by mobilizing support outside of his own Kalenjin community has led to speculation that the political power of ethnicity is waning. Drawing on surveys, economic and demographic analysis and interviews during the campaign in Central Kenya – a predominantly Kikuyu area and Kenyatta’s supposed political homeland – we cast doubt on this argument. Evidence from the campaign trail suggests that while structural changes within Kenyan society, including the emergence of a more urban, educated and critical electorate, played an important role in Ruto’s electoral success, it was also underpinned by historic ethnic allegiances, inter-group prejudice, and the use of ethnically-rooted clientelist strategies to build political networks. In particular, past campaigns saw Odinga depicted as an unsuitable leader based on his history, personality, and Luo ethnicity, generating formidable barriers to winning support. The implications of this argument extend beyond our understanding of Kenya to recent debates about the impact of urbanization and political socialization on political subjectivities and behaviour in Africa.

Ethnic Conflict And The Vulnerability Of Women

It is widely accepted that ethnicity is a sort of affiliation to a group, a type of distinctiveness involving an array of characteristics or attributes such as a shared culture that may be seen in their shared history, and language that serve as the basis for this affiliation. Does it satisfy any vital need of individuals, given how fiercely people cling to their ethnic identities? Clinging to an ethnic identity is often seen to provide certain personal or societal benefits. Ethnicity is perceived by many scholars as an expression of individual or group agendas as well as political scheming. Therefore, it is not unlikely for other forms of allegiances such as that of class, to override ethnic allegiance. Owing to the worldwide gender inequality, women due to their shared experience of oppression and subordination, both economic and social, may be categorized as a distinct class in itself. It is difficult to fathom the extent to which women are subjected to atrocities during times of conflict, given how vulnerable their existence is during ordinary circumstances. This paper seeks to investigate how the patriarchal grasp on ethnicity is reinforced by designating women's bodies as symbols of ethnic purity and employing them as boundary markers. Abuse of women to portray a masculine display of power over a rival community becomes a method of warfare. As their quality of life and chances of survival seem to deteriorate during such conflicts, women tend to transcend ethnic allegiances and push for conflict resolution.

The History of Ethnicised Politics in Kenya and its Impact on the Management of the Country’s Public Affairs

This paper deploys historical analysis, conceptual analysis and critical reflection to examine the history of ethnicised politics in Kenya and its negative impact on the management of the country’s public affairs. It sets out with a conceptualisation of ‘ethnicised politics’. It then traces the growth of ethnicised politics in Kenya from the dawn of British colonialism to the present. Thereafter, it reflects on the five-pronged negative impact of ethnicised politics on the country, namely, the gross disparities in economic development along ethno-regional lines, the disproportionately limited economic opportunities for ethnic minorities, the stunting of the growth of issue-based politics, the stoking of violent inter-ethnic conflicts, and the vulnerability of highly urbanised persons and/or those born out of mixed marriages with no strong ethnic loyalties. It concludes that contrary to the widely-held view that Kenyans ought to abandon their ethnic identities in pursuit of ‘nation-building’, respect for the right to cultural identity and the promotion of inter-ethnic equity would make political mobilisation along ethnic lines less attractive.

Dynamics of Jambi Malay Ethnic Group in The Political Contestation of Jambi Mayor Election

Primordial loyalty that breeds fanaticism is often used by politicians as a shortcut and easy way to gather support. By using primordial interests, politicians do not need to work hard to gain support from the people. This research seeks to explain why Jambi Malay ethnic loyalty, as the dominant group, was not formed in relation to the Mayor Election in Jambi City. What are the factors that cause Malay ethnic sentiment not to appear. The data in this study were obtained through in-depth interviews, documentation, and news in the mass media. It is possible for the results of this study to be replicated in areas outside Jambi City to see whether the ethnic Malays elsewhere also have the same cultural roots, political attitudes, and habits, or vice versa. The results of this study will provide an explanation of the theoretical implications of the political events that occurred in the city of Jambi. The results of this study can be used to predict the future of Malay ethnic politics in the midst of an electoral democratic political system that is taking place in Indonesia.

Capital Citizens: Disinvesting the Individual in Helena María Viramontes’sUnder the Feet of Jesus

AbstractIn her novel Under the Feet of Jesus (1995), Helena María Viramontes uses the bildungsroman genre to confront anxieties of bourgeois individualization in Chicana/o cultural productions. Her novel takes shape during the transitional period between the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s to the emergence of a Mexican American middle class in the 1990s. Increasing demand for political and social recognition incited more diverse visions of American incorporation. However, the Chicana/o community’s past consolidation in working-class solidarity resulted in an aesthetic and political resistance to national inclusion. This inclusion was predicated on the development of bourgeois individualism and upward mobility through middle-class assimilation. Under the Feet of Jesus stages the conflict between Anglo-American, capitalist values of individual growth and national expansion and Chicana/o values of ethnic commitment and community through her two adolescent protagonists, Estrella and Alejo. The novel’s approach to temporality and history disinvests from the capitalist logic guiding both the bildungsroman genre and American ideals of individualism and progress.

Kulturalni rasizam, primordijalni lijaliteti i etničko čišćenje / Cultural Racism, Primordial Loyalties, and Ethnic Ceansing

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the individual and structural causes of ethnic cleansing. The paper argues that the cause of ethnic cleansing is cultural or ethnic racism, and that the structural conditions under which ethnic cleansing occurs in society are modern models of social organization such as democracy and nationalism, which form the context in which interethnic prejudice is unleashed in its full strength. The root of this prejudice, in multicultural post-communist states, is usually a very common form of primordial ethnic loyalties, which, by their irrational and antagonistic nature, in periods of early democratic consolidation of society, almost instantly generate irreconcilable demands and feelings of threat from other ethnicities, causing the conflicts between communities that historically share the same territory.

Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges Relating to the Variances in Students’ Response to Dissatisfaction in Business Management Educational Services

Consumers respond to their lack of satisfaction with service provision in a variety of ways. For instance, research findings indicates that consumers’ response options to service dissatisfaction is related to customer loyalty, which may impact their future repurchase intentions (Janjua, 2017). The current study investigates the impact of loyalty, and its cultural understanding, on dissatisfaction response styles of university students. In particular, it compares the variations in response options between Anglo-Saxon Australian students and international Middle Eastern students, attending Australian universities and other tertiary higher education Australian institutions, in an attempt to explore the impact of culture on dissatisfaction, and the resultant response options chosen by students, as guided by culturally defined perceptions and values (Newsome & Cooper, 2016). Findings indicate that there are significant variations in terms of the degree of ethnic loyalty and the response options that students engage in as a reaction to educational service dissatisfaction, mostly attributable to differences in cultural values. The contributions of this study are three-fold. First, the current research study further develops our understanding of cultural loyalty and its impact on students’ future repurchase intentions. Secondly, it provides an understanding of the dissatisfaction response styles of university students coming from different ethnic backgrounds. Finally, this study further contributes to our understanding of the relationship between students’ ethnic backgrounds and their respective repurchase decisions.

Ethnicity Deconstructed: The breakup of the former Yugoslavia and personal reflections on nationalism, identity and displacement

This article is a self-reflexive attempt to bring to light the different problems presented by the idiom of "ethnicity." The main obstacle to attempting the self-reflexive approach is a paradox: it is difficult to derive scientific credibility from elaborations based on implicit feelings, inconsistencies, and unrelated experiences, yet these same elements are seen as relevant ethnographic materials. I describe personal experiences that revolve around three themes: nationalism, identity and displacement. Implicitly, I argue that: a) "ethnicity" is entirely a matter of context that translates into unrelated experiences and contradictory feelings that shape and transform our sense of who we are, or who we are not; b) situations where individuals are forced to expose their ethnic identity and declare "ethnic loyalties" may influence some to become aware that they have no ethnic identity (forced attachment equals detachment); c) there are no groups that are "more nationalistic" or "less nationalistic" - erupting nationalism in former Yugoslavia is seen mainly as a resuit of skillful political manipulation, rather than just a "thing out there"; and d) displacement provides a needed contrastive perspective for articulating one’s own identity.

A Comparative Study of Cultural Identities and Universal Nomad

The essay provides arguments and the disclosure of principles which are at the base of the modern Western understanding of the world and the human role in it. The principles are ontological, i.e., the conception of nature as a sum of material, atomic parts, and metaphysical, i.e., mathematics as a basis of scientific theories and methods. The conjunction of these principles constitutes what is known as “instrumental reason,” resulting in the universal technological globalization and nomadic civilization. The latter is composed of detached, technical experts, capable of residing anywhere without any cultural or ethnic commitments. The results of their activities are a global network of technical means both for global nomadic tourism and anonymous associations without personal involvement.

Sinicisation vs. Arabisation: Online Narratives of Islamophobia in China

ABSTRACT This article examines the recent rise of Islamophobic narratives in the Chinese cyberspace. Using content analysis of social media headline articles, this article argues that key Islamophobic actors in the Chinese cyberspace have constructed a ‘victims and villains’ narrative to effectively ‘other’ Muslim populations in China. By implying that non-Sinicised Muslims are under Arab fundamentalist influences, religious autonomy becomes political betrayal and Islamophobia is legitimised. Elements of Islamophobia is then subsumed in the official narrative calling for ethnic loyalty to the Chinese nation, which presents a unique challenge to the Chinese Party-state as Islamophobic discourses both legitimises state-sponsored autocratic control in Muslim regions, but also could potentially bring destabilisation to an already fragile ethnic relationship between Muslim minorities and the Han majority.

‘Before there is power, there is the country’: civic nationalism and political mobilisation amongst Kenya's opposition coalitions, 2013–2018

AbstractThis paper provides an ethnographic perspective on the street-level deliberations of Kenya's opposition supporters between the 2013 and 2017 elections, arguing that rather than appeals to ethnicity what defines its discourse are broader, inclusive notions of political membership. A civic nationalism is enunciated by opposition supporters that congeals support between multiple ethnic groups through its emphasis on universal values – democracy, due process, equality, adherence to the constitution. However, when such civic ideas are used in political campaigning and mobilising rhetoric, describing a resurgent Kenyan ‘people’ that has been systematically disenfranchised, they take on an exclusionary character. As ‘good constitutionalists’, opposition supporters contrast themselves with ‘bad nationalists’ associated with the government, portrayed as mobilising particularistic ethnic loyalties at the expense of a majority of Kenyans. In practice, their civic ideas remain only potentially inclusive.

Religion, ethnicity and “conversion” in the 1641 Irish Rebellion

ABSTRACT This article examines the attempt to coerce large numbers of Protestants to “convert” to Catholicism during the 1641 Irish Rebellion. Drawing especially on the 1641 Depositions, it argues that such “conversions” were both a powerful and ritualised form of violence, but also provide tangible evidence of evolving religious and ethnic loyalties in seventeenth-century Ireland. Focusing on previously neglected coerced conversions sheds light not just on the rising itself, but also wider Irish society. In particular, the emergence of “Irish” as the primary identifier of the Catholic population – both Old English and native Irish – is here scrutinised. “Conversions” during the rebellion provide the opportunity to see the application of such categories on the ground and question the narrative of an ascendant religious identity. The article also positions Ireland itself as part of a wider European and Atlantic story in debates – and conflict – surrounding conversion, faith and loyalty.

Ethnicity and voters’ evaluations of political leadership: “lab-in-the-field” experiments in Russian regions

ABSTRACTThis paper presents an experimental test of ethnic-based bias in citizens’ evaluation of a political leader’s decision-making across three multi-ethnic regions of the Russian Federation (Sakha, Buryatia, and Tatarstan) and one mono-ethnic region (Arkhangel’sk Oblast). With variations in the intensity of ethnic loyalties, degree of titular ethnic group assimilation, and differences in an ethnic division of labor, Russian regions present an interesting site for the investigation of these conjectures. The experiment participants read a vignette describing a decision by a local mayor and assess the decision. We randomly vary the mayor’s ethnicity and policy choice. Our findings suggest that policy substance is the primary influence and dominates ethnicity when citizens evaluate public officials in three of the four regions. In the fourth region, Sakha in Northern Siberia, we provide analyses to explain the greater salience of ethnicity.

Ethnic Politics and Strongman Loyalties in Fiji’s 2018 Election

ABSTRACTFiji’s 2018 election was the first test of prime minister and coup leader Frank Bainimarama’s FijiFirst government after a period in elected office and the second election since the military coup of 2006. It was an election the incumbents confidently expected easily to win, but one which signalled some reinvigoration of a previously divided and demoralized opposition. This article examines the major political parties and their social bases, the key issues in the campaign and the polling venue data. It uses Sitiveni Rabuka’s accession to the leadership of the main opposition party as a window on important events in Fiji’s postcolonial history, which themselves became a key focus of the 2018 campaign. The paper finds unusual forms of orchestrated ethnic polarization disguised as its inverse, concerted use of incumbency to consolidate a reformist electoral base and some limited easing of previous constraints on the courts, the media and public protest. Despite the 12 years since the 2006 coup, Fiji remains a highly precarious democracy.

Cross-Cultural Study of Students’ Response to Education Dissatisfaction: An Australian Context

The inevitability and unpredictability of service failures can result in consumer dissatisfaction, whereby consumers respond to their lack of satisfaction with the service provision in a variety of ways. Previous research indicates that consumers’ response options to service dissatisfaction is related to various facets of customer loyalty, which, in turn, may heavily impact on future repurchase intentions (Helou and Caddy, 2007). Accordingly, this study investigates the impact of loyalty and its cultural understanding on dissatisfaction response styles of university students. In particular, it compares the variations in response options between Anglo-Saxon Australian students and international Asian Chinese students, in an attempt to explore the impact of culture on dissatisfaction, and the resultant response options chosen by students, as guided by culturally defined perceptions and values (Helou, 2005; Helou and Caddy, 2007; Newsome and Cooper, 2016). Findings indicate that there are significant variations in terms of the degrees of ethnic loyalty and the response options engaged in as a reaction to dissatisfaction, mostly attributable to differences in cultural values. The contributions of this study are three-fold. First, the current research study further develops our understanding of cultural loyalty and its impact on students’ future repurchase intentions. Secondly, it provides an understanding of the dissatisfaction response styles of university students coming from different ethnic backgrounds. Finally, the current study further contributes to our understanding of the relationship between students’ ethnic backgrounds and their respective repurchase decisions.

The Impact of Coalitional Commitment on the Recall of Moral Memories

We explore the relationship between coalitional alignment and memories of the Croatian Homeland War. Fifty-seven Croatian citizens with war experiences participated in a semi-structured interview. Participants less affected by the war and high in ethnic commitment recalled more morally charged memories than participants low in commitment. Participants highly affected by the war similarly recalled morally charged memories; however, the qualitative nature of the memories differed between high and low commitment. Offspring of mixed marriages and Orthodox participants reported more virtuous behaviors than other participants. The findings contribute to the literature on the intractability of conflict.

Why Is Sunday Morning the Most Segregated Hour? A Sociopsychological Inquiry into the Barriers and Opportunities for Ecumenical Unity

The segregation between faith communities is better explained by exploring the sociocultural frameworks with which people identify because of their value orientations, than by reference to doctrinal disagreements. In most faith communities not only values like charity or justice count, but also the the sacredness and authority of traditions, people, and places, as well as the importance of ethnic recognizability and loyalty to the ingroup. These latter normative orientations explain why it is so difficult for faith communities to engage in ecumenical processes of unification. Given this, I explore two sociopsychological viable ways in which ecumenical unity may be fostered.

Ethnic Identity and Constitutional Reprentative Governance in Nigeria

The work focuses on ethnic identity and constitutional representative govern-ance in Nigeria and how it has been aided or impeded by ethnic politics. De-mocracy, in the liberal perspective, is government by popular representation; a form of government in which the supreme power is retained by the people, but is indirectly exercised through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed; a constitutional representative government. Today in Nigeria, there is serious rivalry among the ethnic groups over issues such as power and resource sharing formula, the fear of domination, uneven development and many more. It is clear that constitutional representative governance in Nigeria has fallen far below expectation, as primordial ethnic loyalties are still deep seated. Ethnic identity is seen as the major cause of this failure; it has sentence of Nigeria to pernicious and precarious situations. For Nigeria to move forward democratically, politics of identity remained unhealthy for her nascent democracy. Because, it is prone to ethnic domineering and unequal distribution of dividends of democracy.

Moral Judgments of In-Group and Out-Group Harm in Post-conflict Urban and Rural Croatian Communities.

Our research brings to light features of the social world that impact moral judgments and how they do so. The moral vignette data presented were collected in rural and urban Croatian communities that were involved to varying degrees in the Croatian Homeland War. We argue that rapid shifts in moral accommodations during periods of violent social strife can be explained by considering the role that coordination and social agents' ability to reconfigure their social network (i.e., relational mobility) play in moral reasoning. Social agents coordinate on (moral) norms, a general attitude which broadly facilitates cooperation, and makes possible the collective enforcement of compliance. During social strife interested parties recalibrate their determination of others' moral standing and recast their established moral circle, in accordance with their new or prevailing social investments. To that extent, social coordination—and its particular promoters, inhibitors, and determinants—effects significant changes in individuals' ranking of moral priorities. Results indicate that rural participants evaluate the harmful actions of third parties more harshly than urban participants. Coordination mediates that relationship between social environment and moral judgment. Coordination also matters more for the moral evaluation of the harmful actions of moral scenarios involving characters belonging to different social units than for scenarios involving characters belonging to the same group. Participants high in relational mobility—that ability to recompose one's social network—moralize similarly wrongdoings perpetrated by both in- and out-group members. Those low in relational mobility differentiate when an out-group member causes the harm. Additionally, perceptions of third-party guilt are also affected by specifics of the social environment. Overall, we find that social coordination and relational mobility affect moral reasoning more so than ethnic commitment.