Ethnic Competition and State Capacity Under Settler Colonialism

• In Event: In-Group/Out-Group Politics

Abstract

How does ethnic diversity and conflict affect the capacity of a state to govern its subjects? Whereas extant works tend to emphasize the role of the ability of the state and its subject to communicate with each other, and the complexity of a given social structure, the state’s ability to govern its subjects are highly dependent on the tacit compliance on the part of the governed, and that the degree of ethnic conflict can be a determinant of the willingness of subject peoples to cooperate with the state. In a multiethnic society, where the state privileges certain ethnic groups over others, the capacity of the state to govern these groups should increase with the threats that they face from outgroups.
I argue that in areas that saw heavier inter-ethnic competition, the favored minority group will be more cooperative with state rule, in return for the state protecting their privileges vis-à-vis the majority group. Such dynamics are not uncommon throughout history, for many colonial powers have practiced differential treatment between ethnic groups, frequently elevating one group to a proxy or middle-man status. This study takes the case of Korean settlers in Manchukuo, and their relationships with the Han Chinese majorities and the Japanese-led Manchukuo government to examine this relationship. Koreans were situated in a complex intermediate position wherein they were accorded privileges over the majority Chinese population and were seen as proxies for Japanese power, but at the same time were treated as second-class citizens and were seen as a security threat. This study will measure state capacity as the outcome variable, focusing on the concept of legibility (Scott, 1998; Lee and Zhang, 2016), or the ability of a state to ascertain accurate information about its subjects, using the methodology for analyzing the accuracy of censuses using the phenomena of age heaping, proposed in Lee and Zhang (2016). This data is significant in that these age cohort data are available categorized by race, allowing the researcher to compare state capacity across ethnic groups in the same location.

Author

• Harunobu Saijo, Duke Political Science