Ethnic diversity

Ethnic diversity refers to the plurality of categories that grant identity in a setting. These are considered ethnic when membership in them is associated with (or believed to be associated with) a common, shared descent. Therefore, a variety of different attributes may signal common ancestry and define group boundaries, including skin colour, language, religion, or place of birth.

Ethnicity is relational, since it derives from the differences perceived between a collective and others. It is only relevant when the traits that differentiate people define social and political interactions or, in other words, when they become institutionalised.

Public Goods

Traditionally, public goods are defined as those commodities or services that are:

  • Non-excludable: Everybody can benefit from them, while it is impossible to exclude someone from enjoying them.
  • Non-rival: The fact that one person enjoys these goods does not reduce its availability to others.

However, we use the term to capture the minimum set of services that a government is expected to offer to its citizens. Those include low crime, good schools and healthcare, adequate sanitation, and clean drinking water. While those services are to some extent excludable, they make it easier for scholars to measure variations across time and space.

Public Goods

Traditionally, public goods are defined as those commodities or services that are:

  • Non-excludable: Everybody can benefit from them, while it is impossible to exclude someone from enjoying them.
  • Non-rival: The fact that one person enjoys these goods does not reduce its availability to others.

However, we use the term to capture the minimum set of services that a government is expected to offer to its citizens. Those include low crime, good schools and healthcare, adequate sanitation, and clean drinking water. While those services are to some extent excludable, they make it easier for scholars to measure variations across time and space.

Spurious relationship or correlation

In statistical analysis, this term describes a false equivalence between two variables that is actually caused by a third variable.

Patterns of nation-building

This concept refers to how newly formed nation-states, that were constructed around the nationalist principle that ethnic likes should rule ethnic likes chose to acknowledge and deal with ethnic diversity after their creation.

Differences in nation-building translate into different strategies of public goods provision. ETHNICGOODS distinguishes among three patterns:

This pattern provides goods to all the population and disregards ethnic distinctions. This is expected to result in lower levels of subsequent diversity, and higher levels of public provision of services over time.

This strategy also provides public goods universally, but it recognizes ethnically distinct preferences. This pattern is expected to lead to higher levels of diversity and higher levels of public provision.

This pattern concentrates the distribution of public goods on the dominant group, leading to higher levels of diversity but lower levels of public goods provision over time.

Patterns of nation-building

This concept refers to how newly formed nation-states, that were constructed around the nationalist principle that ethnic likes, should rule ethnic likes chose to acknowledge and deal with ethnic diversity after their creation.

Differences in nation-building translate into different strategies of public goods provision. ETHNICGOODS distinguishes among three patterns:

This pattern provides goods to all the population and disregards ethnic distinctions. This is expected to result in lower levels of subsequent diversity, and higher levels of public provision of services over time.

This strategy also provides public goods universally, but it recognizes ethnically distinct preferences. This pattern is expected to lead to higher levels of diversity and higher levels of public provision.

This pattern concentrates the distribution of public goods on the dominant group, leading to higher levels of diversity but lower levels of public goods provision over time.

CC BY-NC 2.0 – Kai Schwerdt

Nativism

A political movement that promotes the rights of the population born in a territory over those of the immigrant population.

State capacity

This concept refers to the ability of a state to implement policy choices and deliver services throughout its territory. Commonly, scholars treat the state’s ability to tax as an indicator of its overall capacity, but this multi-dimensional concept is not necessarily captured only by the ability to extract revenue. ETHNICGOODS acknowledges that the capacity to provide public goods is strongly conditioned by the basic knowledge states hold about the make-up of their populations and territories.

State capacity

This concept refers to the ability of a state to implement policy choices and deliver services throughout its territory. Commonly, scholars treat the state’s ability to tax as an indicator of its overall capacity, but this multi-dimensional concept is not necessarily captured only by the ability to extract revenue. ETHNICGOODS acknowledges that the capacity to provide public goods is strongly conditioned by the basic knowledge states hold about the make-up of their populations and territories.

ERC

The European Research Council was established to foster the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding. This is set to support frontier research across all fields, based on scientific excellence. This grant complements other funding activities in Europe.

The ERC has an ‘investigator-driven’ approach. This allows researchers to identify new opportunities and directions in any field of research, rather than being led by priorities set by politicians. Moreover, it ensures that funds are channelled into new and promising areas of research with a greater degree of flexibility.

ERC offers three types of grants: starting, advanced and consolidator, depending on the degree of professional evolution of its grantees.

IBEI

The Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI) is an inter-university institute, created in 2004, to promote postgraduate training and research in politics and international relations. Aiming to advance the understanding of global challenges facing the world, IBEI is a centre of academic excellence that combines outstanding research with high-quality teaching and career development opportunities. Located at the crossroads between Europe, the Mediterranean and Latin America, Barcelona provides a unique environment to ponder the intricacies of governance, development and security on a global scale. More information about IBEI at https://www.ibei.org/

IBEI

The Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI) is an inter-university institute, created in 2004, to promote postgraduate training and research in politics and international relations. Aiming to advance the understanding of global challenges facing the world, IBEI is a centre of academic excellence that combines outstanding research with high-quality teaching and career development opportunities. Located at the crossroads between Europe, the Mediterranean and Latin America, Barcelona provides a unique environment to ponder the intricacies of governance, development and security on a global scale. More information about IBEI at https://www.ibei.org/