Segregation Drives Racial Voting: New Evidence from South Africa

Citation:

Sands, Melissa, and Daniel de Kadt. Submitted. “Segregation Drives Racial Voting: New Evidence from South Africa”.

Abstract:

How does local demographic context shape political behavior? We investigate the effect of segregation, operationalized as white isolation, on racial voting in South Africa. Using a variety of new datasets, which include high resolution census data from before the end of Apartheid, we estimate effects by leveraging plausibly exogenous variation in the extent to which local segregation persisted after the end of Apartheid. Racial isolation is found to increase white racial voting, measured as the probability of whites voting against the African National Congress (ANC) or other non-white parties. Using geo-referenced survey data for over 39,000 people we then present individual level evidence consistent with our findings, and discuss potential mechanisms.

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Last updated on 08/13/2016