Government 20: Week 8, Lecture 1: The Politics of Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict

I. Definitions
A. Ethnic Groups: rooted in belief in shared ancestry group, based on ascriptive
traits (e.g., race, language, religion, region)
B. Nation and Nationalism
II. Four Levels of Ethnic Salience
A. Objective Difference
B. Cultural Pluralism
C. Politicized Ethnicity
D. Ethnic Violence
III. Theories of Ethnicity
A. Classical Theories:
a. Modernization/Melting Pot Theories: ethnic identities as “traditional;”
expected to disappear with modernization
b. Marxism: ethnicity as “false consciousness”
c. Problem: ethnicity didn’t disappear; seen in ex-Soviet Union, Canada,
Belgium, Ireland, USA
B. Three Contemporary Approaches
a. Primordialism
i. Ethnicity as fixed, historically given: either inherent or deeply
rooted in societies; ethnic identities trump other (class, ideological)
identities when push comes to shove
ii. Implications: ethnic identities (and conflict) always lurking beneath
the surface in plural societies
iii. Problem: many seemingly “deeply rooted” ethnic identities are
fluid, changing, and even newly created
b. Instrumentalism
i. Ethnicity as an individual strategic choice—a means to other
(political or economic) ends
ii. Implications: ethnicity similar to other group memberships; ethnic
conflict “really” about power/money but dressed in ethnic clothing
iii. Problem: ethnic identities more stable (and less clearly linked to
economic and political interests) than instrumentalist theories predict
c. Constructivism
i. Ethnicity as neither fixed nor individually chosen, but rather socially
constructed -- a product of social, political, and institutional context
ii. Implications: Ethnic identities change, but usually slowly, over
several generations
iii. Problem: less generalizability or predictive power (we can only tell that
identities have been constructed after the fact)

Key Terms
Ethnic group
Nation and nationalism
Cultural pluralism