Minority Salience and Political Extremism

Tommaso Colussi, Ingo E. Isphording and Nico Pestel

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 237-71

Abstract: We investigate how the salience of an ethnic minority affects the majority group's voting behavior. We use the increased salience of Muslim communities during Ramadan as a natural experiment. Exploiting exogenous variation in the distance of election dates to Ramadan over the 1980–2013 period in Germany, our findings reveal an increased polarization. Vote shares for both right- and left-wing extremist parties increase in municipalities with mosques when an election takes place shortly after Ramadan. We use survey data to provide evidence on mechanisms: Ramadan increases respondents' perceived share of the foreign-born population and emphasizes cultural dissimilarities, ultimately worsening attitudes toward Muslims.

JEL-codes: D72 D91 J15 Z12 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Minority Salience and Political Extremism (2019)
Working Paper: Minority Salience and Political Extremism (2016)
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DOI: 10.1257/app.20190703

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