Ethnicity and Electoral Politics and Ethnic Bargaining: The Paradox of Minority Empowerment

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Ethnicity and Electoral Politics. By Jóhanna Kristín Birnir. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 279p. $85.00.

Ethnic Bargaining: The Paradox of Minority Empowerment. By Erin K. Jenne. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006. 272p. $45.00.

The literature on ethnic mobilization has benefited considerably in recent years from a wave of innovative scholarship examining such ostensibly disparate issues as ethnic party formation, the psychological and emotional underpinnings of group violence, the utility (and disutility) of ethnic appeals by power-seeking elites, and the limits and benefits of civic associations as a means of ameliorating intergroup conflict. A common feature shared by this work is its focus on problem-oriented research questions, creative research design, a rigorous application of diverse methodological approaches, and, perhaps most importantly, the willingness to develop and empirically test potentially contentious theories. Jóhanna Kristín Birnir's Ethnicity and Electoral Politics and Erin K. Jenne's Ethnic Bargaining are reflective of these qualities and make strong contributions to the field of ethnic politics. Both books make striking claims about contemporary debates in communal politics research and employ a broad array of empirical tools to test their core hypotheses. At the same time, they diverge regarding the implications of political liberalization and the greater political latitude it affords organized ethnic communities.