Diversity, inequality and democratic decline

Abstract

Two factors that are often associated with democratic instability and decline are economic inequality and ethnic diversity. In this review article, I systematically examine the comparative research and show that the simple assumptions – that ethnic diversity or economic inequality in themselves undermine democracy – are not robustly supported by the empirical evidence. Both can, under certain circumstances, prepare the ground for undemocratic tendencies, but this requires that ethnic or socioeconomic divides become politicized and turn into lines of contention. On this basis, I discuss a more recent strand of the literature that does not treat inequality and ethnicity as separate phenomena but instead combines them. This research shows that inequality between ethnic groups is particularly destabilizing – more so than economic inequality or diversity alone. I additionally present two illustrative case studies of Nepal and Bolivia, which illuminate the mechanisms identified in the literature. The article's main implication is that the overlap between ethnic categories and material as well as political inequalities increases the vulnerability of democratic institutions.