Wilkinson Steven I. Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India

Cambridge University Press, 2004. — 311 p.Why does ethnic violence break out in some places and not others? More important, why do some governments try to prevent antiminority riots while others do nothing, or even actively encourage attacks? This book answers these questions through a detailed study of Hindu-Muslim riots in India, as well as case studies of Ireland, Malaysia, and Romania. It shows how electoral incentives at two levelsinteract to explain both where violence breaksout and, more importantly, why some states decide to prevent mass violence and others do not. While developing thiselectoral incentives model, the author showswhy several alternative explanations for ethnic violence – focusing on town-level social and economic factors, the weak capacity of the Indian state, or India’s alleged lack of “consociational power sharing” – cannot explain the observed variation in Hindu-Muslim riots.
Steven I.Wilkinson is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Duke University, where he has taught since 1999. He has traveled extensively in India since his first visit there in 1989. He has been awarded fellowships from the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, the Columbia University Society of Fellowsin the Humanities, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.