American Journal of Political Science
Defiant pride: Origins and consequences of ethnic voting
2025-10-07
Why do voters often remain loyal to ethnic parties despite receiving little in terms of material welfare? I develop a theory focused on the role of dignity concerns in explaining within‐group variation in ethnic party loyalty. Group members who face discrimination from state agencies dominated by outgroups respond with defiant pride, which manifests as ethnicity becoming a larger part of the self‐concept. This heightened ethnic identification creates a demand for recognition through descriptive representation. Consequently, high‐identifying group members—often from lower social classes—are more forgiving of malfeasance by ethnic parties and more likely to trade off material for symbolic goods. I provide experimental, descriptive, and qualitative evidence for this argument from Karachi, Pakistan—a megacity ruled for three decades by a poorly governing ethnic party. This article pushes the literature on ethnic voting beyond dominant instrumental approaches and underscores the necessity of systematically unpacking heterogeneity within ethnic groups.