THE DYNAMICS of PUBLIC GOODS PROVISION in MULTI-ETHNIC COMMUNITIES ACROSS AFRICA by (Under the Direction Of
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
TRUST BEYOND TRIBE: THE DYNAMICS OF PUBLIC GOODS PROVISION IN MULTI-ETHNIC COMMUNITIES ACROSS AFRICA by ANN PAWLIK KRYZANEK (Under the direction of Markus M.L. Crepaz) ABSTRACT Why are some multi-ethnic communities able to achieve mutually beneficial collective ac- tion while others remain trapped in social dilemmas? Across a wide variety of settings, scholars have demonstrated that ethnic diversity tends to undermine the local provision of public goods. However, recent empirical studies have found exceptions to this rule. In some diverse communities the hindrances to collective action are less challenging, as indi- viduals of different ethnicities are willing to work together to manage public resources or supply supplementary public goods. This dissertation addresses when and why we observe local goods provision in multi-ethnic localities across Africa, identifying inter-ethnic trust as a causal mechanism enabling individuals to contribute to their community’s well-being despite its diversity. Building on constructivist scholarship, this dissertation explores the micro-foundational link between identity and trust as well as the institutional and demo- graphic factors that shape patterns of inter-ethnic trust in diverse communities, ultimately linking these factors to individual participation in public goods provision. I argue that multi-ethnic communities will be able to resolve their collective action problems and pro- vide public goods locally in those areas where the saliency of ethnicity has been tempered by contextual variables and inter-ethnic trust has been given space to germinate. To test my hypotheses, I use public opinion surveys from the Afrobarometer project, country-level measures of ethnic fragmentation, and original data collected in ethnically heterogeneous neighborhoods across Cape Town, South Africa to conduct statistical, large-n analyses of identity, trust, and participation across Africa as well as an in-depth case study of local goods provision in Cape Town. The dissertation reveals two main findings. First, the degree to which individuals trust non-coethnics depends on the strength of their ethnic identification. Secondly, in contexts of both ethnic homogeneity and heterogeneity, indi- viduals who are trusting of non-coethnics are more likely to contribute to goods provision. My results bolster constructivist scholarship on the context-dependent effects of ethnicity and highlight the conditions under which collective action can be sustained in diverse soci- eties. The dissertation offers cross-disciplinary implications for scholarship and policy in the development field. INDEX WORDS: public goods provision, ethnicity, identity, trust, participation, institutions, Africa, South Africa, Cape Town. TRUST BEYOND TRIBE: THE DYNAMICS OF PUBLIC GOODS PROVISION IN MULTI-ETHNIC COMMUNITIES ACROSS AFRICA by ANN PAWLIK KRYZANEK B.A., Boston College, 2005 M.A., University of Georgia, 2008 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS,GEORGIA 2013 c 2013 Ann Pawlik Kryzanek All Rights Reserved TRUST BEYOND TRIBE: THE DYNAMICS OF PUBLIC GOODS PROVISION IN MULTI-ETHNIC COMMUNITIES ACROSS AFRICA by ANN PAWLIK KRYZANEK Approved: Major Professor: Markus M.L. Crepaz Committee: Ryan S. Bakker Shane P. Singh Shaheen Mozaffar Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2013 Acknowledgments I am deeply indebted to a number of individuals and organizations that provided me with encouragement and mentorship during the completion of this dissertation. First and fore- most, I would like to thank Markus M.L. Crepaz for the support, insight, and feedback he has given me as I worked on this project and the many that came before it. His mentorship throughout my graduate career at the University of Georgia has been invaluable. I would also like to thank Ryan Bakker for teaching me the skills necessary to complete this project and providing me with opportunities to help me succeed in this field and Shane Singh for his comments and feedback along the way. I am deeply grateful to Shaheen Mozaffar, who has nurtured my intellectual and professional development from the beginning of my graduate career. I thank him for his guidance, unwavering support, and for cultivating my interest in South Africa. I am indebted to the University of Cape Town’s Democracy in Africa Research Unit, for providing me with an institutional home while I was conducting field research in South Africa. In particular, I thank Robert Mattes for his support of this project and for pro- viding useful feedback on earlier drafts of the dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues in the Department of International Affairs for their friendship and support, including Mwita Chacha, Jon Polk, Szymon Stojek, and Leah Carmichael. On a personal note, I owe gratitude to the members of my family. I thank Laura, Kathryn, Jim, Grace and Noah for their comfort and patience over the years. I am for- iv ever grateful to my parents, Michael and Carol Kryzanek, for always believing in me and for their unconditional love. And finally, I am deeply grateful to Johannes Karreth for his unwavering support, encouragement and love. v Contents Acknowledgements iv 1 Introduction1 1.1 The Argument in Brief............................5 1.2 A Roadmap of the Chapters Ahead......................7 2 Public Goods, Collective Action, and Ethnicity9 2.1 Social Dilemmas...............................9 2.2 Ethnic Heterogeneity and Public Goods Provision.............. 15 2.3 Conclusion.................................. 24 3 Theoretical Framework 26 3.1 Trust in Multi-Ethnic Societies........................ 27 3.2 Ethnicity, Generalized Trust, and Participation in Public Goods Provision. 37 3.3 Reevaluating Outcomes of Ethnic Diversity in Africa............ 49 4 Ethnic Identity and Trust: An Empirical Test 54 4.1 Data and Measurement............................ 56 4.2 Estimation and Findings........................... 66 4.3 Conclusion.................................. 70 vi 5 Trust and Participation in Public Goods Provision: Cross-National Evidence 72 5.1 Linking Trust and Participation at the Individual Level........... 73 5.2 Accounting for Diversity........................... 80 5.3 Conclusion.................................. 90 6 Fighting Crime and Grime Locally: Inter-ethnic Trust and Community Polic- ing Efforts in Cape Town, South Africa 91 6.1 Why Cape Town?............................... 92 6.2 Expectations.................................. 97 6.3 Research Design............................... 98 6.4 Inter-ethnic Trust and Local Security Provision in Delft and Zonnebloem.. 109 6.5 Conclusion.................................. 130 7 Conclusions 132 7.1 Theoretical Implications........................... 135 7.2 Policy Implications.............................. 139 7.3 Limitations and Future Directions...................... 141 8 Appendix A 145 Bibliography 158 vii List of Figures 4.1 Trust attitudes throughout Africa....................... 57 4.2 Average trust across 17 African countries.................. 58 4.3 Bridging and Bonding Trust throughout Africa............... 60 4.4 Ethnic vs. National Self Identification throughout Africa.......... 62 4.5 Ethnic Identification across 20 African Nations............... 64 4.6 Comparing the Effects of Ethnic and National Identity on Bridging Trust.. 67 4.7 Predicted Probabilities of High Bridging Trust across the Range of Ethnic Identification................................. 68 5.1 Membership in Community Development Associations........... 76 5.2 Mean Participation across 20 African Nations................ 81 5.3 The Marginal Effect of Bridging Trust on Participation across EGF Index. 87 5.4 Comparing the Effects of Bonding and Bridging Trust on Predicted Levels of Participation................................ 88 5.5 Random-Intercept Regression Coefficients on Participation in Public Goods Provision................................... 89 viii List of Tables 4.1 Ordered Logit Estimates of Bonding and Bridging Trust........... 66 5.1 OLS Estimates of Individual Participation in Public Goods Provision.... 79 5.2 Analysis of Variance for Participation in Public Goods Provision...... 85 5.3 Linear Mixed Model Estimates of Individual Participation in Public Goods Provision, Controlling for Ethnic Fragmentation............... 86 6.1 A Comparison of Selected Community Characteristics........... 105 8.1 Ordered Logit Estimates of Bonding and Bridging Trust without Clustered Standard Errors................................ 145 8.2 Results of Factor Analysis of Participation in Public Goods Provision (Vari- max Rotation)................................. 146 ix Chapter 1 Introduction This dissertation seeks to explain why some multi-ethnic communities in Africa are better able to provide local public goods than others. In some diverse communities across the continent, residents cooperate to implement night patrols, working together to police their own neighborhoods. In other multi-ethnic villages, neighbors struggle to maintain and re- pair community wells that provide safe drinking water to the community. This dissertation asks a simple question: what explains why diverse communities differ in their capacity to govern their own commons? Ethnic diversity appears to pose intractable problems for societies in every corner of the globe. Scholars have found that, in many heterogeneous