What kinds of democratic institutions manage ethnic strife most effectively? What environmental conditions increase the propensity for friction and, consequently, increase the conflict-management burden of political institutions? To answer these questions, a brief theoretical argument and some empirical tests of hypotheses derived from the theory will illustrate the superiority of proportional to majoritarian institutions of ethnic conflict management. These tests analyze various forms of ethnic conflict, over a 45-year period, among ethnic groups living under democratic rule. Ted Robert Gurr's minorities at risk, which consist of 233 ethnic groups in 100 countries, are the units of analysis.
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