Minority salience and political extremism

Tommaso Colussi; Ingo E. Isphording; Nico Pestel

doi:10.1257/app.20190703

Minority salience and political extremism

Tommaso Colussi^*, Ingo E. Isphording, Nico Pestel

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

133 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We investigate how the salience of an ethnic minority affects the majority group’s voting behavior. We use the increased salience of Muslim communities during Ramadan as a natural experiment. Exploiting exogenous variation in the distance of election dates to Ramadan over the 1980–2013 period in Germany, our findings reveal an increased polarization. Vote shares for both right- and left-wing extremist parties increase in municipalities with mosques when an election takes place shortly after Ramadan. We use survey data to provide evidence on mechanisms: Ramadan increases respondents’ perceived share of the foreign-born population and emphasizes cultural dissimilarities, ultimately worsening attitudes toward Muslims.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	237-271
Number of pages	35
Journal	American Economic Journal-Applied Economics
Volume	13
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20190703
Publication status	Published - Jul 2021

JEL classifications

d72 - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
d91 - "Intertemporal Consumer Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving"
z13 - Economic Sociology
z12 - Cultural Economics: Religion
j15 - "Economics of Minorities, Races, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination"

Keywords

ISSUE-SALIENCE
ETHNIC DIVERSITY
IMMIGRATION
PSYCHOLOGY
CONFLICT
BEHAVIOR
RAMADAN

Access to Document

10.1257/app.20190703

Full text Final published version, 14.4 MBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

@article{158634ca9ac941be8b2d92b818aafd7b,

title = "Minority salience and political extremism",

abstract = "We investigate how the salience of an ethnic minority affects the majority group{\textquoteright}s voting behavior. We use the increased salience of Muslim communities during Ramadan as a natural experiment. Exploiting exogenous variation in the distance of election dates to Ramadan over the 1980–2013 period in Germany, our findings reveal an increased polarization. Vote shares for both right- and left-wing extremist parties increase in municipalities with mosques when an election takes place shortly after Ramadan. We use survey data to provide evidence on mechanisms: Ramadan increases respondents{\textquoteright} perceived share of the foreign-born population and emphasizes cultural dissimilarities, ultimately worsening attitudes toward Muslims.",

keywords = "ISSUE-SALIENCE, ETHNIC DIVERSITY, IMMIGRATION, PSYCHOLOGY, CONFLICT, BEHAVIOR, RAMADAN",

author = "Tommaso Colussi and Isphording, {Ingo E.} and Nico Pestel",

note = "datasource: Election data (Federal Statistical Office), Data on mosques (self-collected), Google search data, European Social Survey, Twitter data, Data on protests PRODAT)",

year = "2021",

month = jul,

doi = "10.1257/app.20190703",

language = "English",

volume = "13",

pages = "237--271",

journal = "American Economic Journal-Applied Economics",

issn = "1945-7782",

publisher = "American Economic Association",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Minority salience and political extremism

AU - Colussi, Tommaso

AU - Isphording, Ingo E.

AU - Pestel, Nico

N1 - datasource: Election data (Federal Statistical Office), Data on mosques (self-collected), Google search data, European Social Survey, Twitter data, Data on protests PRODAT)

PY - 2021/7

Y1 - 2021/7

N2 - We investigate how the salience of an ethnic minority affects the majority group’s voting behavior. We use the increased salience of Muslim communities during Ramadan as a natural experiment. Exploiting exogenous variation in the distance of election dates to Ramadan over the 1980–2013 period in Germany, our findings reveal an increased polarization. Vote shares for both right- and left-wing extremist parties increase in municipalities with mosques when an election takes place shortly after Ramadan. We use survey data to provide evidence on mechanisms: Ramadan increases respondents’ perceived share of the foreign-born population and emphasizes cultural dissimilarities, ultimately worsening attitudes toward Muslims.

AB - We investigate how the salience of an ethnic minority affects the majority group’s voting behavior. We use the increased salience of Muslim communities during Ramadan as a natural experiment. Exploiting exogenous variation in the distance of election dates to Ramadan over the 1980–2013 period in Germany, our findings reveal an increased polarization. Vote shares for both right- and left-wing extremist parties increase in municipalities with mosques when an election takes place shortly after Ramadan. We use survey data to provide evidence on mechanisms: Ramadan increases respondents’ perceived share of the foreign-born population and emphasizes cultural dissimilarities, ultimately worsening attitudes toward Muslims.

KW - ISSUE-SALIENCE

KW - ETHNIC DIVERSITY

KW - IMMIGRATION

KW - PSYCHOLOGY

KW - CONFLICT

KW - BEHAVIOR

KW - RAMADAN

U2 - 10.1257/app.20190703

DO - 10.1257/app.20190703

M3 - Article

SN - 1945-7782

VL - 13

SP - 237

EP - 271

JO - American Economic Journal-Applied Economics

JF - American Economic Journal-Applied Economics

IS - 3

ER -