Ethnic conflict and civic engagement

Abstract

It is sometimes very puzzling that despite ethnic diversity, some places (villages, towns or cities) manage to remain peaceful, whereas others experience violence. This paper explains how the characteristics of civic engagement in a particular place ináuence the occurrence of a conáict there. The paper shows that a place characterized with higher "intra" ethnic civic engagement has greater chances of an ethnic conáict as compared to a place where there are more "inter" ethnic engagement. Moreover, a rich economy is less prone to conáict as compared to a poor economy. Absolute poverty also plays an important role in precipitating conáict.