Horizontal inequalities and affirmative action: An analysis of attitudes towards redistribution across groups in Africa

Abstract

This study has been prepared within the UNU-WIDER project on 'Discrimination and affirmative actions-what have we learnt so far?', which is part of a larger research project on 'Disadvantaged groups and social mobility'.

Group Self‐Interest vs. Equity: Explaining Support for Horizontal Redistribution in (Former) Competitive Clientelist States

“…We thus depart from traditional political economy applications that assume that ethnic groups share a "taste for discrimination" (Becker, 1971) or have a commonality of tastes for which ethnic group members may only be willing to bear the cost of providing public goods if their co-ethnics are the primary recipients (see, for instance, Sambanis & Shayo, 2013;Schmidt-Catran, 2016; while Miguel & Gugerty, 2005, also examine this mechanism, their evidence does not support it). Since past studies could not establish ethnic discrimination to occur in experimental games unless threatened with social sanctions (for the Ugandan context see Habyarimana et al, 2007) and support for economic redistribution to poorer ethnic groups seems high across a number of sub-Saharan contexts (Langer & Mikami, 2013;Langer et al, 2016), we expect that equity considerations are common across groups: H2. Kenyan citizens who attribute the relative disadvantage of the poorest ethnic groups to past political exclusion and historical discrimination are likely to be more supportive of HR.…”

“…Perceptions of political exclusion and disfavoring might be more significant in explaining support for HR, however, than actual histories of in-and exclusion and ethnic favoritism, as was the case in Nigeria and Uganda (Langer et al, 2016). Notably, while past research has shown that there is consistency between objective and subjective inequalities among both the most frustrated (Somali) and the most privileged (Kikuyu) groups in Kenya, this was not the case for larger groups without a history in power (2010 data; Langer & Mikami, 2013).…”

“…Finally, the models also include a range of control variables, including gender, age, urban-rural residence, perceived severity of ethnic disparities, perceived level of group poverty, and ethnic identification. Notably, past research has shown that Kenyans who consider their ethnic identity very important and think that their group's economic situation is worse than that of other ethnic groups are more likely to support economic group-based redistribution (Langer et al, 2016).…”

Who Deserves To Be Supported? Analysing Attitudes Towards Horizontal Redistribution in Nigeria

“…As it turns out, the limited amount of research conducted on subjective HIs also shows that perceptions of HIs may differ markedly from more objective assessments of these HIs (see, e.g., Kraus et al, 2017). Illustratively, Langer and Smedts (2013) find notable mismatches between objective and subjective HIs in 19 African countries. Hence, they conclude that "the assumption that objective and subjective HIs are largely the same…needs to be revisited and challenged" (p. 2).…”