Rioting for Representation

Ethnic riots are costly, deadly, and all too common during political transitions in multiethnic settings. Yet, riots hardly ever engulf an entire country, and they never continue in perpetuity. Why do ethnic riots occur in certain parts of a country in transition, and not others? What accounts for the rise and fall of violence between ethnic groups during political transition? Drawing on rich case studies and quantitative evidence from local administrative units in Indonesia from 1990 through 2012, Rioting for Representation offers a theory that explains the local variation of both the onset and termination of violence in democratizing countries. The patterns of ethnic rioting, Risa Toha explains, are not inevitably driven by inter-group animosity, weakness of state capacity, or local demographic composition. Rather, she finds that local ethnic elites strategically use violence to protest against exclusion in their districts and to leverage their demands for political inclusion during political transition, and that violence eventually declines as these demands are accommodated. This book breaks new ground in showing that particular political reforms-specifically, increased political competition, direct local elections, and local administrative units partitioning-in ethnically diverse contexts can ameliorate political exclusion and reduce overall levels of violence between groups. The book concludes by applying this theory to explain ethnic violence in other countries in transition--