Social Conflict, Redistribution and Political Systems

Abstract

Using data from 100 countries, this paper examines the effect of ethnic or religious conflict on redistribution under different political systems.

First, I empirically analyze how democracy and social conflict influence redistribution measured by government expenditure on education, medicine and social security. The results are following: (1) democracy promotes redistribution by increasing medical expenditure, (2) social conflict has negative impact on redistribution under democracy, (3) democracy has no significant effect on education and social security expenditure.

Second, I investigate how social conflict influences redistribution under different political systems. I classify democracy into a majoritarian democracy and consensual democracy by election rule and presidential system. The result is that religious conflict has more negative impact on medical expenditure in consensual democracy than in majoritarian democracy. On the other hand, the ethnic conflict has more negative impact on education and social security expenditure in majoritarian democracy than in consensual democracy. These findings imply that different political systems have a distinct conflict management.