Does Electing Islamists Increase Religious Violence and Intolerance?

• In Event: New Approaches to the Study of Identity Formation in Comparative Context

Abstract

We estimate the effect of incumbency by Islamist parties on the incidence of religious violence and intolerance in Indonesia. Exploiting discontinuities in the proportional representation system used to allocate seats in local district legislative elections, we find that the presence of additional Islamist (as opposed to secular nationalist) legislators exacerbates religious conflict, according to some measures. There is also evidence that Islamist rule increases expressions of extreme religious intolerance among majority- group survey respondents. The results shed light on the consequences of power sharing by hardline religious parties.

Authors

• Nicholas Kuipers, UC Berkeley

• Gareth Nellis, University of California, San Diego

• Michael Weaver, The University of British Columbia