Localized Ethnic Conflict and Genocide

Abstract

Building on Fearon and Laitin, who concede in-group policing could be exploited for genocidal purposes instead of moderating interethnic hostilities, the authors seek to explain variation in the scale of ethnic conflict, using data from Rwanda and Burundi. Their computational model assumes individuals vary in their propensity to engage in violence, form independent beliefs about others, and react to public messages about current levels of ethnic aggression. In addition, the dominant ethnic group is subject to genocidal norms—defectors who fail to participate in ethnic violence face sanctions. Their results demonstrate that (1) the scale of violence varies considerably across episodes; (2) interethnic conflicts are not structurally deterministic but rather reflect endogenous interactions; (3) interethnic trust influences patterns of conflict—communities exhibiting high degrees of trust generally experience intense violence that subsides rapidly, in contrast to the persistent, moderate violence characteristic of less trusting communities; and (4) stronger genocidal norms exacerbate ethnic violence.

Distressing events and future purchase decisions: Jewish consumers and the Holocaust

“…The work of Bhavnani and Backer is based on work presented by Gould (1999), who added "collective action" to define ethnic conflict, as well as Axelrod's (1986) studies of genocide and enforcement. Bhavnani and Backer (2000) introduce the concept of the "genocidal norm" which they define as an arrangement whereby participation in ethnic violence is sustained under threat of sanctions for non-compliance. In other words, the ethnic conflict sustained by the population of one ethnic group continues to occur because participation in the ethnic conflict has become part of the rule of law itself.…”

“…To clarify whether or not the respondent's family was involved in the Holocaust, the questionnaire used in this study asked about family information regarding two previous generations within the immediate family unit. A scale of “event stress” was comprised of recent findings from the disciplines of sociology and political science, and contains items based on the Bhavnani and Backer (2000) model of ethnic conflict. This model was chosen because it is based on a number of key factors, which includes the reaction to public messages, which in itself was a specific factor (as a reaction to government‐sponsored propaganda) that led to the specific ethnic conflict between the German people and the Jewish people in Nazi‐controlled Germany.…”

A Theoretical Model of Identity Shift in Protracted Refugee Situations

“…This work on identities also leads to implications for research on ethnic mobilization and potential radicalization or militarization among refugee populations (Lustick 2011, Miodownik 2006, Miodownik and Cartrite 2010, Yamamoto 2015. As well as early work on ethnic violence and norm diffusion (Bhavnani and Backer 2000) that resembles a potential precursor for the contagion-like effects of psychological affects that could, for instance, explain how mobs arise from seemingly calm populations (Epstein 2013).…”

Exploring agent-based simulations in political science using Aggregate Temporal Graphs

“…Increasing computing power means that systems of increasing complexity can be simulated. For example, agent-based simulation is widely used in political science to model collaboration [2], conflict [28], violence [4], and population change [3]. Agent-based simulations have also been used to identify a country's political patterns, which might indicate the imminence of civil unrest and help predict catastrophic events [21].…”