Citizenship versus Ethnicity: The Role of Institutions in Shaping Identity Choice

Abstract

This paper examines the role that political institutions play in inducing or subduing ethnic identification. I provide a formal model of ethnic identification as a function of institutional design and social context that focuses on one question: what kinds of institutions will induce individuals to identify with the state rather than along ethnic lines? Among other things, the model offers predictions about when political institutions are capable of inducing a national identity. I conclude with an application of the model to the question of institutional design in Iraq. The model provides one explanation for why a period of low Sunni representation in Iraqi government would increase sectarianism, and why a more proportional Iraqi parliament may not remedy the problem.