Abstract
Elections are a chance for the people to decide who will have access to political power and allocate public economic opportunities and resources. The high stakes that may accompany elections raises the question: When do electoral regimes generally experience more state-sponsored violence? This paper argues that during election years countries will experience an increase in political violence. Additionally, this paper advances a theory that such political violence will be exacerbated in ethnically diverse countries. Most studies on ethnic conflict attribute polarization as being the cause of violence. However, this study will consider both ethnic fractionalization and polarization as a catalyst for violence. An empirical implication of these theories is that there should be an increase in state-sponsored violence during election years, while ethnically diverse countries will experience more of an increase in state-sponsored violence in election years, relative to non-election years. Results from testing these hypotheses using data on state- sponsored violence across time and country are not definitive. As such, this paper suggests avenues for further research.
How to Cite
Tangusso, S., (2020) “Come Ballots or Bullets: An Analysis of Violence, Elections, & Ethnic Diversity”, Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship 33(1).
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