The (Non-)Persistence of Indigenous Institutions

• In Event: The Politics of Customary Institutions: Comparative Data and Analysis

Abstract

To which degree are institutions persistent and how can we explain the variance in continuity? This article explores indigenous institutions of subnational ethnic groups worldwide and their institutional persistence by using historical and newly collected data on the institutional centralization of ethnic groups. The Ethnographic Atlas (EA) by Murdock (1969) provides detailed ethnographic information on about 1,200 ethnic groups across the world before they were exposed to European rule. These data-in particular the jurisdictional hierarchy variable measuring the degree of centralization of group institutions-have been widely used in recent quantitative research to test the long-term effect of pre-colonial institutions on contemporary outcomes such as public goods delivery (Wilfahrt 2018), development (Michalopoulos and Papaioannou 2015, Gennaioli and Rainer 2007), and internal conflict (Wig 2016, Paine 2018). However, many institutions experienced severe transformations in the colonial and post-colonial period, including abolishment and institutional (re)inventions (e.g., Ranger 1993; Hobsbawm et al. 1983; Keulder 2000; Englebert 2002). To this date, we lack a thorough understanding which institutions persist and what accounts for their survival. In order to assess the assumed “stickiness” of institutions, we collect new global data on the contemporary institutional centralization of ethnic groups using an expert survey and compare it to Murdock’s pre-colonial coding. In a second step, we test if the variance in the persistence of institutions can be explained by group-level indicators, such as the degree of centralization, and state-level indicators, such as the exposure to indirect or direct rule. This article therefore (1) contributes to the debate on whether the EA data can be used to predict contemporary outcomes by replicating some of the most well-known analyses using Murdock’s variable with our contemporary coding, and (2) analyzes what accounts for the variance in the persistence of indigenous institutions in the post-colonial era. Therefore, this article critically contributes to the question if and why institutions persist.

Authors

• Clara Neupert-Wentz, University of Konstanz

• Carl Müller-Crepon, ETH Zurich