Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T23:47:05.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do African Voters Favor Coethnics? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Benin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2015

Claire L. Adida
Claire L. Adida*
Affiliation:
Political Science Department, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA, e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Can African politicians play the ethnic card? Ethnicity matters for a host of outcomes in Africa, but debate remains about the extent to which it motivates the African voter. In experimental settings, we know that ethnicity shapes political support for hypothetical candidates. This paper offers an experimental test of the extent to which ethnicity shapes political support for actual, real-world politicians. Relying on Benin’s mixed-ethnicity President, this paper proposes a survey experiment that measures the independent effect of coethnic cues in boosting support across both coethnic groups. The results reveal that coethnic cues work: the same political actor can draw support from two different ethnic groups based solely on subtle ethnic cues.

Keywords

AfricaBeninethnicitysurvey experimentvoting
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Experimental Political Science , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , Spring 2015 , pp. 1 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © The Experimental Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Africa News. 2006. Man with No Party sets Benin on a Road it’s Never Travelled.Google Scholar
Banégas, R. 2002. La Démocratie à pas de caméléon. Paris: Editions Karthala.Google Scholar
Bates, R. H. 1983. “Modernization, Ethnic Competition, and the Rationality of Politics in Contemporary Africa.” In State versus Ethnic Claims: African Policy Dilemmas, eds. Rothchild, D. and Olunsorola, V. A.. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
BBC News. 2006. Benin’s new President Announced.Google Scholar
Bio Bigou, L. B. 2011. La Question du Régionalisme et du Sectarisme dans la Conquête et la Gestion du Pouvoir d’Etat, du Dahomey au Bénin: Origines et Manifestations. Cotonou: Bibliothèque Nationale.Google Scholar
Bratton, M., and Kimenyi, M. S. 2008. Voting in Kenya: Putting Ethnicity in Perspective. Afrobarometer Working Paper No. 95.Google Scholar
Bratton, M. et al. 2011. Voting Intentions in Africa: Ethnic, Economic or Partisan? Afrobarometer Working Paper No. 127.Google Scholar
Chandra, K. 2004. Why Ethnic Parties Succeed. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chandra, K. 2006. “What is Ethnic Identity and Does it Matter?” Annual Review of Political Science 9: 397–424.Google Scholar
Conroy-Krutz, J. 2013. “Information and Ethnic Politics in Africa.” British Journal of Political Science 43 (02): 345–373.Google Scholar
Cornevin, R. 1981. La République Populaire du Bénin. Paris: G.P. Maisonneuve and Larose.Google Scholar
Country Data. 2011. Nigeria - Yoruba Kingdoms and Benin.Google Scholar
Decalo, S. 1976. Historical Dictionary of Dahomey (People’s Republic of Benin). Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Google Scholar
Dunning, Thad, and Harrison, Lauren. 2011. “Cross-Cutting Cleavages and Ethnic Voting: An Experimental Study of Cousinage in Mali.” American Political Science Review 104 (1): 21–39.Google Scholar
Eifert, B. et al. 2010. “Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa.” American Journal of Political Science 54 (1): 494–510.Google Scholar
Ferree, K. E. 2006. “Explaining South Africa’s Racial Census.” The Journal of Politics 68 (4): 803–815.Google Scholar
Franck, R., and Rainer, I. 2012. “Does the Leader’s Ethnicity Matter? Ethnic Favoritism, Education and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa.” American Political Science Review 106 (02): 294–325.Google Scholar
Freedom House 2011. Freedom in the World 2011 - Benin.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, J., and Hiscox, M. J. 2007. “Educated Preferences: Explaining Atttitudes Toward Immigration in Europe.” International Organization 61 (02): 399–442.Google Scholar
Hampshire, K., and Smith, M. T. 2001. “Consanguineous Marriage among the Fulani.” Human Biology 73 (4): 597–603.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horiuchi, Y. et al. 2007. “Designing and Analyzing Randomized Experiments: Application to a Japanese Election Survey Experiment.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (3): 669–687.Google Scholar
Horowitz, D. L. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ichino, N., and Nathan, N. 2013. “Crossing the Line: Local Ethnic Geography and Voting in Ghana.” American Political Science Review 107 (2): 344–361.Google Scholar
Imai, K. et al. 2008. “Misunderstandings among Experimentalists and Observationalists about Causal Inference.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (Statistics in Society) 171 (2): 481–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackman, R. W. 1978. “The Predictability of Coups d’état: A Model with African Data.” American Political Science Review 72 (4): 1262–1275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasara, K. 2007. “Tax Me if You can: Ethnic Geography, Democracy, and the Taxation of Agriculture in Africa.” American Political Science Review 101 (01): 159–172.Google Scholar
Kimenyi, Mwangi S., and Gutierrez Romero, Roxana. 2008. Identity, Grievances, and Economic Determinants of Voting in the 2007 Kenyan Elections. University of Connecticut Economics Working Paper 200838.Google Scholar
Lenz, Gabriel. 2009. “Learning and Opinion Change, not Priming: Reconsidering the Evidence for the Priming Hypothesis.” American Journal of Political Science 53 (4): 821–837.Google Scholar
Lieberman, E. S. 2003. Race and Regionalism in the Politics of Taxation in Brazil and South Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lindberg, S. I., and Morrison, M. K. C. 2008. “Are African Voters really Ethnic or Clientelistic? Survey Evidence from Ghana.” The Journal of Modern African Studies 123 (1): 95–122.Google Scholar
Loko, E. 2007. Boni Yayi: “l’intrus” qui connaissait la maison. Cotonou: Tunde.Google Scholar
Lynch, G., and Crawford, G. 2011. “Democratization in Africa 1990–2010: An Assessment.” Democratization 18 (2): 275–310.Google Scholar
Mission Atlas Project. 2011. Niger Country Snapshot.Google Scholar
Ndegwa, Stephen. 1997. “Citizenship and Ethnicity: An Examination of two Transition Moments in Kenyan Politics.” American Political Science Review 91 (3): 599–616.Google Scholar
Posner, D. N. 2005. Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Posner, D. N., and Simon, D. J. 2002. “Economic Conditions and Incumbent Support in Africa’s New Democracies; Evidence from Zambia.” Comparative Political Studies 3 (3): 313–336.Google Scholar
Sargent, C. F. 1982. The Cultural Context of Therapeutic Choice: Obstetrical care Decisions among the Bariba of Benin, vol. 3. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Sen, Maya, and Wasow, Omar. In Press, 2016. “Race as a ‘Bundle of Sticks’: Designs that Estimate Causal Effects of Seemingly Immutable Characteristics.” Annual Review of Political Science 19.Google Scholar
Wantchekon, L. 2003. “Clientelism and Voting Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Benin.” World Politics 55: 399–422.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Adida supplementary material

Adida supplementary material 1

Download Adida supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 290.5 KB