The Politics of Ethnic Violence: The Cases

of Rwanda and Yugoslavia

Pablo Balan

GOV 20

October 26 2017

Ethnic identity recap

I Primordialism: “Man is a national animal”

I Instrumentalism: Ethnicity is a mask. Real interests arepolitical or economic

I Constructivism: Ethnicity is the product of a socialprocess. “Nationalism created nations” [Gellner]

I Institutionalism: institutions shape and consolidate ethnicidentities

The menu

Some questions

I Is the Hutu-Tutsi difference primordial or constructed?

I What explains participation in ethnic violence?

I What is the role of the state in genocide?

I How does a country recover from such a catastrophe?

I What is the relationship between ethnic diversity andconflict?

I How does Rwanda compare to Yugoslavia?

Rwanda: Explaining participation

I Historical construction of Tutsi as invaders [Mamdani]

I State capacity, coercion [Straus]

I Culture of obedience [Prunier]

Yanagizawa-Drott (2014): Propaganda and conflict

Yanagizawa-Drott (2014): Propaganda and conflict

Heldring (2016): State history and violence

Reconciliation

I Portraits of reconciliation, New York Times, April 2014

We are all neighbors

I Documentary: We are all neighbors

Steven Pinker

The Big Picture

The Big Picture

The Big Picture

The Big Picture

The Big Picture

The Big Picture

The Big Picture

The Big Picture

The Big Picture

The Big Picture