2012/04/01 by Joshua R. Gubler, Joel Sawat Selway, Joel Selway · 230 citations
Social Sciences · #Demographic economics #Demography #Development economics #Economics #Ethnic group #Inequality #Law #Nationalism #Political Conflict and Governance #Political economy #Political science #Population #Religion, Society, and Development #Social class #Socioeconomic status #Sociology #Spanish Civil War #Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
paper · doi:10.1177/0022002711431416
published in Journal of Conflict Resolution 56(2), 206-232 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2012/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
In this article, the authors bring together research on horizontal inequality, geographic dispersion of ethnic groups and crosscutting cleavages to present a more holistic theory of ethnic structure and civil war onset. The authors argue that rebel leaders are thwarted in their mobilization efforts in highly crosscutting societies due to a lower probability of potential combatants identifying with nationalist goals, decreased ability to exert social control, and diminished in-group communication. Using cross-national data from over 100 countries, the authors provide evidence that civil war onset is an average of nearly twelve times less probable in societies where ethnicity is crosscut by socioeconomic class, geographic region, and religion.