2008/04/01 by Kanchan Chandra, Steven Wilkinson, Steven I. Wilkinson · 257 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography #Computer science #Conceptualization #Conflation #Confusion #Epistemology #Ethnic group #Index (typography) #Law #Political Conflict and Governance #Political science #Psychology #Social psychology #Sociology #Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies #Test (biology)
paper · doi:10.1177/0010414007313240
published in Comparative Political Studies 41(4-5), 515-563 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2008/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Most tests of hypotheses about the effects of “ethnicity” on outcomes use data or measures that confuse or conflate what are termed ethnic structure and ethnic practice. This article presents a conceptualization of ethnicity that makes the distinction between these concepts clear; it demonstrates how confusion between structure and practice hampers the ability to test theories; and it presents two new measures of ethnic practice—ECI (the ethnic concentration index) and EVOTE (the percentage of the vote obtained by ethnic parties)—that illustrate the pay-offs of making this distinction and collecting data accordingly, using examples from the civil war literature.