Ethnic Autonomy

• In Event: Language Politics in State- and Nation-building

Abstract

This article explores the origins of ethnolinguistic diversity within state. Previous research focuses on geographical features as “fundamental” determinants and documents statistical evidence, using the cross-country framework, on not only the choice of economic activity but also the patterns of human interactions. In this paper, I hypothesize that geographical distance and political institutions on taxation play a crucial role in explaining within-state diversity. First, in premodern times, distance represents the cost of governance by the political center, because states were unable to rule the countryside directly. Second, I argue that early-modern tax institutions, especially those in Europe, were disproportionately extractive of countryside peasants and had long-term effects of isolating them politically and economically, which left them to develop distinct cultural attributes. I test these hypotheses with a new data set of 214 cities and ten ethnic groups in France. Using the persistence of non-French languages as my outcome variable, I show that distance from Paris is positively and significantly correlated with it and that distance captures the limitations of governing in the language of the capital. I further demonstrate that peasants incur a greater burden than merchants and the nobility, which helps identify the location of the persistence of non-French tongues. My analysis is robust to inclusion of a host of covariates and potential confounding factors.

Author

• Yu Sasaki, Waseda University