IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/publus/v46y2016i4p568-595..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethnic Entrepreneurs and Movements for New Administrative Units: Lessons from Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Ryan Saylor

Abstract

Many countries, especially in Africa, have increased their subnational administrative units in recent years. Researchers point to marginalized ethnic groups as a key force behind administrative subdivision. This article seeks to disentangle the relative influence of elites and the masses in prompting two movements for new administrative units in Nigeria (for Bayelsa and Ekiti states). I find that elites generated the movements, but not simply by mobilizing co-ethnics around an enduring identity. Rather, political entrepreneurs reconfigured ethnic boundaries and infused latent identities with new significance. They found ethnic appeals to be expedient for political mobilization. This finding cautions against interpreting ethnic mobilization for new districts as cultural groundswells. Overall, this article contributes to the emerging debate over the sources of demand for new administrative units in the developing world.

Suggested Citation

  • Ryan Saylor, 2016. "Ethnic Entrepreneurs and Movements for New Administrative Units: Lessons from Nigeria," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 46(4), pages 568-595.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:publus:v:46:y:2016:i:4:p:568-595.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/publius/pjw016
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Posner,Daniel N., 2005. "Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521541794.
    2. Conroy-Krutz, Jeffrey, 2013. "Information and Ethnic Politics in Africa," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 345-373, April.
    3. World Bank, 2008. "An Evaluation of Bank Support for Decentralization in Client Countries," World Bank Publications - Reports 10595, The World Bank Group.
    4. Independent Evaluation Group, 2008. "Decentralization in Client Countries : An Evaluation of World Bank Support, 1990-2007," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6543, December.
    5. Posner,Daniel N., 2005. "Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521833981.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero & Adrienne LeBas, 2020. "Does electoral violence affect vote choice and willingness to vote? Conjoint analysis of a vignette experiment," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 57(1), pages 77-92, January.
    2. David F Damore & Michelle Kuenzi, 2019. "Executive turnovers in sub-Saharan Africa," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 21-40, March.
    3. Kao, Kristen & Lust, Ellen & Rakner, Lise, 2022. "Vote-buying, anti-corruption campaigns, and identity in African elections," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Kaivan Munshi & Mark Rosenzweig, 2008. "The Efficacy of Parochial Politics: Caste, Commitment, and Competence in Indian Local Governments," NBER Working Papers 14335, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Klaus Desmet & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Romain Wacziarg, 2009. "The political economy of ethnolinguistic cleavages," Working Papers 2009-17, Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales.
    6. Nemera Mamo & Sambit Bhattacharyya, 2018. "Natural Resources and Political Patronage in Africa: An Ethnicity Level Analysis," Working Paper Series 0418, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    7. Sam Barrett, 2015. "Subnational Adaptation Finance Allocation: Comparing Decentralized and Devolved Political Institutions in Kenya," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 15(3), pages 118-139, August.
    8. Erdmann, Gero, 2007. "Ethnicity, Voter Alignment and Political Party Affiliation – an African Case: Zambia," GIGA Working Papers 45, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    9. Jeremy Bowles & Horacio Larreguy & Shelley Liu, 2020. "How Weakly Institutionalized Parties Monitor Brokers in Developing Democracies: Evidence from Postconflict Liberia," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(4), pages 952-967, October.
    10. Robin Burgess & Remi Jedwab & Edward Miguel & Ameet Morjaria & Gerard Padró i Miquel, 2015. "The Value of Democracy: Evidence from Road Building in Kenya," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(6), pages 1817-1851, June.
    11. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12067 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Erdmann, Gero, 2007. "The Cleavage Model, Ethnicity and Voter Alignment in Africa: Conceptual and Methodological Problems Revisited," GIGA Working Papers 63, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    13. De Luca, Giacomo & Hodler, Roland & Raschky, Paul A. & Valsecchi, Michele, 2018. "Ethnic favoritism: An axiom of politics?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 115-129.
    14. Erik Lindqvist & Robert Östling, 2013. "Identity and redistribution," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 469-491, June.
    15. Bluhm, Richard & Thomsson, Kaj, 2020. "Holding on? Ethnic divisions, political institutions and the duration of economic declines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    16. Johan Brosché & Hanne Fjelde & Kristine Höglund, 2020. "Electoral violence and the legacy of authoritarian rule in Kenya and Zambia," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 57(1), pages 111-125, January.
    17. Briggs, Ryan C., 2021. "Power to which people? Explaining how electrification targets voters across party rotations in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    18. Kenneth Shelton Aikins & Richard Ametefe, 2017. "Ethnic Factor and Politics in the Asuogyaman District of Ghana," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(3), pages 21582440177, July.
    19. Franck, Raphaã‹L & Rainer, Ilia, 2012. "Does the Leader's Ethnicity Matter? Ethnic Favoritism, Education, and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 106(2), pages 294-325, May.
    20. Hillman, Arye L. & Metsuyanim, Kfir & Potrafke, Niklas, 2015. "Democracy with group identity," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 274-287.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:publus:v:46:y:2016:i:4:p:568-595.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/publius .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.