Single Review on past events

This talk discussed ethnic conflict and the way in which governments can have an influence on factors that in turn can increase ethnic groups’ likelihood of engaging in ethnic conflict. In a first section Janina Beiser provided an overview over the concept of ethnic conflict as it is understood in quantitative Political Science. She discussed the concept of ethnicity that is used by a large part of the field and provided an understanding of the prevalence of ethnic conflict in different world regions.

The second part of the talk discussed why it is important to understand the way governments treat ethnic groups in their state to understand ethnic conflict as well. Janina discussed the issue of reverse causality that is a big challenge in understanding how factors that the government can influence actually affect ethnic groups’ likelihood of ethnic conflict.

The final part of the talk discussed two current working papers of Janina on the way that governments treat ethnic groups. The first paper, collaborative work with Nils Metternich, explores which ethnic government coalitions are most likely to form in a state. The second paper, collaborative work with Kristian Gleditsch, explores when and where governments use deadly repression against their citizens and particularly the role of ethnic exclusion in government repression.