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Article: Exploiting ethnicity: political elites and domestic conflict.(reversing the trend: ETHNIC CONFLICT)
- Article from:
- Harvard International Review
- Article date:
- January 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Harvard International Relations Council, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Self-serving, perceptive elites tend to exploit ethnic conflict for their own personal benefit. In times of political and social upheaval, when insecurity prevails, ethnic leaders take advantage of uncertainty to consolidate their power and provide benefits to their groups. Two conditions exacerbate this process: democratization and diaspora support.
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Ted Gurr of the University of Maryland challenges the prevailing notion that conflict emerges when states collapse into anarchy. He has argued that the so-called "Third Wave" of democratization, which swept through Africa and Eastern Europe in the 1990s, led to ethnic upheavals ...