The Politics of Customary Institutions: Comparative Data and Analysis

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Customary governance institutions (e.g. chieftaincies, traditional leaders, native authorities, and indigenous institutions) influence political outcomes around the globe and have recently attracted growing scholarly interest in the fields of development, democracy, and conflict processes. Innovative data projects and increased interest in sub-national political dynamics have enabled a more comparative approach to study customary institutions and their effects. This panel brings together ambitious research projects that share a common interest in systematic data collection and rigorous methodological approaches in examining the politics and implications of customary institutions. Substantially, the panel focuses on the causes and consequences of variation in the prevalence, quality, and strength of customary institutions. Empirically, the panel draws on rich survey and historical data and enables a global and regional comparative analysis of different types of customary institutions.
The first two papers of the panel focus on the continuity of customary governance structures and the role these have played in state building processes. The paper by Neupert-Wentz and Bayer uses novel global data on the contemporary institutional structures of ethnic groups to examine the variance in the continuity of customary institutions. The paper makes a critical contribution to a more empirically-grounded understanding of the prevalence of customary institutions over time. The paper by Henn adopts spatial regression discontinuity model to examine the effects of traditional leaders on state building at the local level. Drawing empirical evidence across 25 African countries, the paper suggests that the effects of the power of traditional leaders are conditional on their institutional role within a state. The second pair of the panel’s papers demonstrate the implications that different types and strengths of contemporary customary institutions have for localities within states. The paper by Mustasilta studies the role of customary institutions in shaping the interaction between civilians and armed groups in intra-state armed conflicts. Specifically, the paper examines how the strength of customary institutions influences the strategic use of violence against civilians in a given locality. The paper finds empirical support for an argument that armed groups – particularly rebel groups – target areas with strong customary institutions. Finally, the paper by Cornell et al. assesses how institutions of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) nations in the US affect crime rates. Amid its substantive contribution, the paper presents a machine learning approach to coding of constitutional and institutional texts and a new digital database that allows a more nuanced measurement of AIAN institutional quality.
This panel brings together four new approaches to the study of comparative customary institutions, their structure, embeddedness in contemporary states, as well as their consequences for state building, crime, and violence. Through their comparative nature, the contributions advance our theoretical as well as empirical knowledge of customary institutions today.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 12: Comparative Politics in Developing Countries

Individual Presentations

• The (Non-)Persistence of Indigenous Institutions - Clara Neupert-Wentz, University of Konstanz; Carl Müller-Crepon, ETH Zurich

• The Role of Traditional Leaders in African State Building - Soeren Jannik Henn, IPA & University of Chicago

• Customary Institutional Strength and Civilian Victimization in Armed Conflicts - Katariina Mustasilta, University of Essex

• American Indian Constitutions: An Automated Content Analysis - Rebecca Elizabeth Cordell, University of Texas at Dallas; Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, University of Essex; Florian G. Kern, University of Essex

Chair

• Clara Neupert-Wentz University of Konstanz

Discussant

• Pierre Englebert Pomona College