Lethal Ethnic Riots

Donald Horowitz defines a deadly ethnic riot as "an intense, though not necessarily unplanned, lethal attack by members of one ethnic group on civilian members of another ethnic group." The book draws examples from all over the world and rigorously analyzes this brutal phenomenon.

This document discusses the causes and characteristics of religious, race, and ethnic riots. It reports that rioting crowds are euphoric, murderous, and cruel, but also deliberate and calculating. It argues that such riots are caused by a combination of hatred, a precipitating event, an argument that violence is justified, and a feeling of impunity.

The reigning consensus holds that the combination of free markets and democracy would transform the third world and sweep away the ethnic hatred and religious zealotry associated with underdevelopment. In this revelatory investigation of the true impact of globalization, Yale Law School professor Amy Chua explains why many developing countries are in fact consumed by ethnic violence after adopting free market democracy. Chua shows how in non-Western countries around the globe, free markets have concentrated starkly disproportionate wealth in the hands of a resented ethnic minority. These “market-dominant minorities” – Chinese in Southeast Asia, Croatians in the former Yugoslavia, whites in Latin America and South Africa, Indians in East Africa, Lebanese in West Africa, Jews in post-communist Russia – become objects of violent hatred. At the same time, democracy empowers the impoverished majority, unleashing ethnic demagoguery, confiscation, and sometimes genocidal revenge. She also argues that the United States has become the world’s most visible market-dominant minority, a fact that helps explain the rising tide of anti-Americanism around the world. Chua is a friend of globalization, but she urges us to find ways to spread its benefits and curb its most destructive aspects.

Donald L. Horowitz's comprehensive consideration of the structure and dynamics of ethnic violence is the first full-scale, comparative study of what the author terms the deadly ethnic riot—an intense, sudden, lethal attack by civilian members of one ethnic group on civilian members of another ethnic group. Serious, frequent, and destabilizing, these events result in large numbers of casualties. Horowitz examines approximately 150 such riots in about fifty countries, mainly in Asia, Africa, and the former Soviet Union, as well as fifty control cases. With its deep and thorough scholarship, incisive analysis, and profound insights, The Deadly Ethnic Riot will become the definitive work on its subject. Furious and sadistic, the riot is nevertheless directed against a precisely specified class of targets and conducted with considerable circumspection. Horowitz scrutinizes target choices, participants and organization, the timing and supporting conditions for the violence, the nature of the events that precede the riot, the prevalence of atrocities during the violence, the location and diffusion of riots, and the aims and effects of riot behavior. He finds that the deadly ethnic riot is a highly patterned but emotional event that tends to occur during times of political uncertainty. He also discusses the crucial role of rumor in triggering riots, the surprisingly limited role of deliberate organization, and the striking lack of remorse exhibited by participants. Horowitz writes clearly and eloquently without compromising the complexity of his subject. With impressive analytical skill, he takes up the important challenge of explaining phenomena that are at once passionate and calculative.

"Ethnic riots are costly, deadly, and all too common during political transitions in multiethnic settings. Yet, riots hardly ever engulf an entire country, and they never continue in perpetuity. Why do ethnic riots occur in certain parts of a country in transition, and not others? What accounts for the rise and fall of violence between ethnic groups during political transition? Drawing on rich case studies and quantitative evidence from local administrative units in Indonesia from 1990 through 2012, Rioting for Representation offers a theory that explains the local variation of both the onset and termination of violence in democratizing countries. The patterns of ethnic rioting, Risa Toha explains, are not inevitably driven by inter-group animosity, weakness of state capacity, or local demographic composition. Rather, she finds that local ethnic elites strategically use violence to protest against exclusion in their districts and to leverage their demands for political inclusion during political transition, and that violence eventually declines as these demands are accommodated. This book breaks new ground in showing that particular political reforms-specifically, increased political competition, direct local elections, and local administrative units partitioning-in ethnically diverse contexts can ameliorate political exclusion and reduce overall levels of violence between groups. The book concludes by applying this theory to explain ethnic violence in other countries in transition"--

Una reproducción digital está disponible en E -Editions, una colaboración de la Universidad de California Press y el programa eScholarship de la Biblioteca Digital de California.

Ethnic conflict has been the driving force of wars all over the world, yet it remains an enigma. What is it about ethnicity that breaks countries apart and drives people to acts of savage violence against their lifelong neighbors? Stuart Kaufman rejects the notion of permanent "ancient hatreds" as the answer. Dissatisfied as well with a purely rationalist explanation, he finds the roots of ethnic violence in myths and symbols, the stories ethnic groups tell about who they are. Ethnic wars, Kaufman argues, result from the politics of these myths and symbols—appeals to flags and faded glories that aim to stir emotions rather than to address interests. Popular hostility based on these myths impels groups to follow extremist leaders invoking such emotion-laden ethnic symbols. If ethnic domination becomes their goal, ethnic war is the likely result. Kaufman examines contemporary ethnic wars in the Caucasus and southeastern Europe. Drawing on information from a variety of sources, including visits to the regions and dozens of personal interviews, he demonstrates that diplomacy and economic incentives are not enough to prevent or end ethnic wars. The key to real conflict resolution is peacebuilding—the often-overlooked effort by nongovernmental organizations to change hostile attitudes at both the elite and the grassroots levels.