The Foundations of Ethnic Politics

ISBN-13: 9780521894944 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 296 str.

Henry E. Hale

Opis

Despite implicating ethnicity in everything from civil war to economic failure, researchers seldom consult psychological research when addressing the most basic question: What is ethnicity? The result is a radical scholarly divide generating contradictory recommendations for solving ethnic conflict. Research into how the human brain actually works demands a revision of existing schools of thought. At its foundation, ethnic identity is a cognitive uncertainty-reduction device with special capacity to exacerbate, but not cause, collective action problems. This produces a new general theory of ethnic conflict that can improve both understanding and practice. A deep study of separatism in the USSR and CIS demonstrates the theory s potential, mobilizing evidence from elite interviews, three local languages, and mass surveys. The outcome is a significant reinterpretation of nationalism s role in the USSR s breakup, which turns out to have been a far more contingent event than commonly recognized. International relations in the CIS are similarly cast in new light."

Recenzje

'Henry Hale … breaks fresh ground in The Foundations of Ethnic Politics, positing a relational theory of ethnicity at the centre of which is an acknowledgement that 'uncertainty reduction is a fundamental human motivation driving the near-universal tendency for humans to divide themselves into groups' (p. 35). … This is an important book that will shape all future writing on the subject.' Political Studies Review

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; Note on transliteration; 1. Introduction; Part I. Theory with Worldwide Examples: 2. The need for a microfoundational theory of ethnicity; 3. A relational theory: ethnicity is about uncertainty, whereas ethnic politics is about interests; 4. A theory of national separatism in domestic and interstate politics; Part II. Case Comparisons: Separatism in Eurasia: 5. Ethnicity: identity and separatism in the USSR 1917–91; 6. Central state policies and separatism; 7. Framing: manipulating mass opinion in Ukraine and Uzbekistan; 8. Institutionally mediated interests: the political economy of secessionism; 9. Ethnicity and international integration: the CIS 1991–2007; 10. Quantitative evidence: micro-, macro- and multilevel; Part III. Conclusion: 11. Toward a general theory of ethnic conflict and solutions; Index.