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Disunity in Diversity: Party System Fragmentation and the Dynamic Effect of Ethnic Heterogeneity on Latin American Legislatures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Jóhanna Kristín Birnir  and
Donna Lee Van Cott
Jóhanna Kristín Birnir
Affiliation:
University at Buffalo-SUNY
Donna Lee Van Cott
Affiliation:
Tulane University
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Abstract

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This paper demonstrates that in Latin America a significant portion of the increased legislative party system fragmentation since the 1980s is explained by the recent political incorporation of ethnic populations. Until now, scholars have likely not identified this relationship because they have not used the nuanced measures of ethnic fractionalization that account for internal diversity of indigenous populations and race, and because they have not focused on the time period when ethnic peoples were politically incorporated. In addition to demonstrating this relationship statistically, we use two case studies from Bolivia and Ecuador to illustrate how in recent years the dynamic relationship between ethnic groups and political parties in Latin American legislatures has changed and resulted in the statistical association between ethnic fractionalization and party system fragmentation that we observe.

Resumo

Resumo

Este trabajo demuestra que en América Latina, una porción significativa del incremento en el nivel de fragmentación del sistema de partidos legislativo a partir de la década del ochenta se explica por la reciente incorporación política de poblaciones étnicas. Hasta el momento, los académicos tienden a no identificar esta relación porque no han utilizado las mediciones de fragmentación étnica dentro de las diversas poblaciones indígenas y raciales, y porque no se han concentrado en el período en el cual las poblaciones étnicas fueron incorporadas políticamente. Además de demostrar esta relación estadísticamente, utlizamos los estudios de caso de Bolivia y Ecuador para ilustrar cómo la relación dinámica entre los grupos étnicos y los partidos políticos en las legislaturas de América Latina ha cambiado en los años recientes, resultando en la asociación estadística observable entre fraccionamiento étnico y fragmentación del sistema de partidos.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , February 2007 , pp. 99 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

We would like to thank Jesse George and Andrew Gunnoe for valuable research assistance. We also thank Jeffry Lewis, Franco Mattei, and Michael Thies for statistical advice, Scott H. Beck, Michael Coppedge, Mark P. Jones, Steven Levitsky, Kenneth J. Mijeski, and José E. Molina V., for data, and Henry Dietz, Raul Madrid, Marc Rosenblum, and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts. A prior version was presented at the 2004 Congress of the Latin American Studies Association. All errors and omissions are the authors’.

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