Cross‐ethnic appeals in plural democracies

Abstract

Whether 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 crossethnic 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.

Africa and Ethnic Politics

“…In his study of presidential elections in Kenya, where outreach to non-coethnics is mathematically necessary for victory, Jeremy Horowitz (2016) shows that the main presidential candidates concentrate their efforts on campaigning among unaffiliated (swing) non-coethnic voters, holding the most rallies among them, and delegating mobilization of coethnics to local level politicians. Devasher and Gadjanova (2019) study when politicians make cross-ethnic appeals, concluding that they are most likely to do so when such outreach carries low risk of alienating their own coethnics and when their appeals are credible. Gadjanova (2017) also documented how politicians can expand their coalitions to include unaligned voters by using ethnic wedge issues, namely ethnic issue appeals meant to sow division between unaligned voters and rival coalitions.…”