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Political Competition and Social Organization: Explaining the Effect of Ethnicity on Public Service Delivery in Pakistan

Shafique, Aisha

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Political Science.
In the study of ethnicity on public goods provision, the concept of ethnicity has largely been under specified, resulting in ambiguity in what specific attributes of ethnicity can prove to be deleterious to public goods provision. This dissertation focuses on how two specific aspects of ethnicity, rigidity of ethnic boundaries and internal ethnic social organization, affect preferences for public goods provision. Fearon (1999) argues that nonporous ethnic boundaries facilitate forming minimum winning coalitions based on ethnic identity as they more easily exclude others from sharing benefits. Hence, I argue that this lowers trust between ethnic groups as they fear that whoever comes into power will hoard government resources. It is thus not inherent antipathy as posited in many works on ethnic politics but political competition that drives preferences for private over public goods in diverse polities. Using Pakistan’s recent devolution as a natural experiment, I show using in-depth surveys that introducing political competition at the union council level of local government led to a perceived increase in political significance of local kinship identities. Comparing a homogeneous union council in southern Punjab with an ethnically diverse union council I find that the homogeneous polity is more likely to vote by ethnicity, prefer private goods over public goods, and prefer public goods provision in the regime before the local government system. Yet, when asked who should benefit from a hypothetical public goods project, they were as likely to stipulate the entire community irrespective of identity as was the homogeneous polity, illustrating that it is not inherent antipathy that leads to politicization of ethnicity, but the fear of being locked out of politics. While studying the effect of social organization of ethnic groups on public goods outcomes, I compare districts that vary in tribalism, and hence internal hierarchy, in Balochistan. I find that though public goods such as health are not strongly correlated with tribalism, there is emerging evidence that education outcomes are better in less tribal districts. This is consistent with theories that suggest that education politicizes individuals and is more threatening to asymmetric power structures. Using in-depth surveys in three districts in Balochistan that vary by internal hierarchy, I find that though preferences for public goods did not vary by tribalism among respondents, the most tribal district was also the most vulnerable to elite capture by the tribal leaders. Moreover, the disparity in education outcomes between rural areas in tribal and non-tribal polities is greater than the disparity in urban areas. This suggests that where internal ethnic structure is hierarchical and unchecked by competition, such as in rural areas, greater elite capture is more likely to result in under provision of public goods like education that can potentially disrupt extant power structures.
Sarah Brooks (Advisor)
Irfan Nooruddin (Committee Member)
Marcus Kurtz (Committee Member)
325 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Shafique, A. (2013). Political Competition and Social Organization: Explaining the Effect of Ethnicity on Public Service Delivery in Pakistan [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1384175586

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Shafique, Aisha. Political Competition and Social Organization: Explaining the Effect of Ethnicity on Public Service Delivery in Pakistan. 2013. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1384175586.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Shafique, Aisha. "Political Competition and Social Organization: Explaining the Effect of Ethnicity on Public Service Delivery in Pakistan." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1384175586

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)