High minority power facilitates democratization across ethnic fault lines

Democratization is vital for peaceful coexistence but often fails, especially where ethnic grievances prevail. Previous research on democratization vis-à-vis ethnic conflict struggled to separate effects of institutional design from those of intergroup animosity. In our lab-in-the-field experiment unequal groups with ongoing ethnic tensions could solve collective allocation problems either democratically or aggressively. As predicted, minorities used inefficient aggression much more often. However, giving minorities high power in the democratic process substantially reduced this problem. Remarkably, removing ethnic animosity changed beliefs but did not reduce aggression. Our results demonstrate that well-designed institutions can achieve efficient, peaceful outcomes even amid intergroup hostility.