Co-ethnic bias and policing in an electoral authoritarian regime: Experimental evidence from Uganda
| Published date | 01 May 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00223433221078051 |
| Date | 01 May 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Regular Articles |
Regular Articles
Co-ethnic bias and policing in an electoral
authoritarian regime: Experimental
evidence from Uganda
Travis Curtice
Department of Politics, Drexel University
Abstract
Why do people cooperate with police in multi-ethnic societies? For scholars of comparative politics and international
relations, examining the effects of ethnicity on patterns of conflict, cooperation, and state repression remains a
foundational endeavor. Studies show individuals who share ethnicity are more likely to cooperate to provide public
goods. Yet we do not know whether co-ethnic cooperation extends to the provision of law and order and, if so, why
people might cooperate more with co-ethnic police officers. In the context of policing, I theorize co-ethnic bias affects
interactions between people and the police because individuals prefer officers who share their ethnicity and fear
repression more when encountering non-co-ethnic officers. Using a conjoint experiment in Uganda, I demonstrate
that individuals prefer reporting crimes to co-ethnic officers, even after controlling for pote ntial confounders.
Broadly, this result is strongest among individuals with no trust in the police, the courts, or the political authorities.
These findings have important implications for the politics of policing, conflict, and social order.
Keywords
conjoint experiment, cooperation, law and order, police, Uganda, unconsolidated democracies
Introduction
One of the fundamental roles of government is to pro-
vide public goods, such as healthcare and education. Of
these goods, the provision of law and order may be one
of the most important since without security, citizens
live in a state of anarchy (Hobbes, [1651]1996). In the
modern state, the police are the central actor responsible
for providing law and order. To prevent and solve
crimes, the police critically rely on information supplied
by community members, and they can receive this infor-
mation only if citizens are willing to cooperate with them
and provide it (Skogan & Frydl, 2004; Tyler, 2006;
Magaloni & Rodriguez, 2020; Soss & Weaver, 2017).
This cooperation involves citizens organizing neighbor-
hood watches, taking note of suspicious activity, and
reporting crimes.
Given these requirements for the effective provision of
law and order, policing is particularly challenging in
multi-ethnic communities. This is especially the case
when officers work in areas mostly populated by those
who do not share their ethnicity. Research on ethnicity
and public goods – while not addressing the provision of
law and order directly – would lead us to expect that
cooperation would be difficult in such areas (Alesina,
Baqir & Easterly, 1999; Miguel & Gugerty, 2005;
Habyarimana et al., 2007). Observational studies of poli-
cing in multi-ethnic contexts like Israel and Ireland sug-
gest that citizens display the same co-ethnic bias in the
provision of law and order as they do in other types of
public goods (Nanes, 2020; Weitzer & Hasisi, 2008).
Others employing experimental evidence suggest that
inclusion of an ethnic outsider in the police force might
decrease cooperation among citizens who identify with
marginalized officers (Blair et al., forthcoming). Yet, few
studies experimentally examine individuals’ preferences
between police officers they might encounter when
reporting crimes.
Corresponding author:
tbc52@drexel.edu
Journal of Peace Research
2023, Vol. 60(3) 395–409
ªThe Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00223433221078051
journals.sagepub.com/home/jpr
To continue reading
Request your trial