The Relationship between Objective and Subjective Horizontal Inequalities: Evidence from Five African Countries

Abstract

In recent years an increasing amount of both qualitative and quantitative research has shown that the presence of severe inequalities between ‘culturally’ defined groups such as ethnic or religious groups — or what Stewart (2002) has termed horizontal inequalities (His) — makes countries more susceptible to a range of political disturbances, including violent conflict and civil war (see, for example, Langer, 2005; Mancini, 2008; Østby, 2008; Stewart eds, 2008; Cederman et al., 2011). It appears that the risk of violent conflict increases in particular if political and socioeconomic His are ‘consistent’ or run in the same direction: that is, a situation where an ethnic group is both politically excluded and relatively disadvantaged in socioeconomic terms (Langer, 2005, 2008; Østby, 2008).¹ Most quantitative studies that have found evidence in support of the relationship between the presence of His and the emergence of violent conflicts have used an objective measure of socioeconomic His, such as a household asset index or a schooling inequality index, rather than a measure of perceived inequalities, in their statistical models (see, for example, Mancini, 2008; Østby, 2008)? With respect to the assessment of political His, the situation is somewhat different. Due to the lack of cross-sectional data on the evolution of objective political His, most quantitative studies testing the relationship between His and conflict have included ‘semi-objective’ or ‘partly subjective’ measures of political HI.