A presentation by Neeraj Prasad, Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam. This event is part of the Political Economy Lunch Seminar (PELS).
It is well known that political violence hardens existing identities and deepens political cleavages. Departing from conventional wisdom, we argue that violence can be used to transform rather than only maintain existing lines of political conflict. We propose that political parties can sponsor violence around a politically dormant social cleavage to establish and strengthen a relationship with those sharing the social identity. Citizens exposed to violence begin to identify more closely with the secondary identity, become more hostile towards the out-group, and increase their support for the political sponsors of violence. These shifts are the result of narratives around violence shared by politicians, who portray violence as necessary to protect co-ethnics. We explore the empirical implications of our argument in India, relying on the subnational expansion of India's largest party as a test case. We establish individual-level effects on identity and polarization through original surveys with citizens in the vicinity of religious rallies, some of whom were exposed to violence while others were not. To demonstrate changes in voting behavior, we rely on polling station data to compare vote shares in localities that witnessed violent rallies before elections with those that experienced them afterward. Finally, we use process tracing of campaign speeches to establish political parties' use of violence as a strategy of cleavage transformation.
Authors: Neeraj Prasad (University of Amsterdam), Ursula Daxecker (University of Amsterdam), and Kartikeya Batra (University of Maryland College Park)
No prior registration necessary. If you have any questions or would like to arrange a meeting with Neeraj, please reach out to Amanda Slater at slater[at]hertie-school[dot]org. We have some slots available on 20th September from 10am to 2pm.