The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi
The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi
复制标题
文化差异的政治显着性：为什么切瓦人和通布卡人在赞比亚是盟友而在马拉维是对手
DOI：
10.1017/s0003055404041334
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发表时间：
2004
影响因子：
6.8
通讯作者：
Daniel N. Posner
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Daniel N. Posner
本文探讨了文化分裂成为政治显著性的条件。它这样做是利用赞比亚和马拉维边界附近Chewa和Tumbuka两族人的分裂所提供的自然实验。我的文件，虽然在边界两侧的Chewas和Tumbukas之间的客观文化差异是相同的，这些社区之间的分裂的政治突出性是完全不同的。我认为，这种差异源于每个国家的Chewa和Tumbuka社区相对于每个国家的国家政治竞技场的规模不同。在马拉维，Chewas人和Tumbukas人都是维斯维斯整个国家而言的大群体，因此是建立政治联盟的可行基础。在赞比亚，Chewas和Tumbukas相对于整个国家来说很小，因此，动员起来作为政治支持的基础是没有用的。分析表明，文化分裂的政治显著性不取决于分裂本身的性质（因为它是相同的，在这两个国家），但它所定义的群体的规模，以及他们是否将是有用的工具，为政治竞争。
This paper explores the conditions under which cultural cleavages become politically salient. It does so by taking advantage of the natural experiment afforded by the division of the Chewa and Tumbuka peoples by the border between Zambia and Malawi. I document that, while the objective cultural differences between Chewas and Tumbukas on both sides of the border are identical, the political salience of the division between these communities is altogether different. I argue that this difference stems from the different sizes of the Chewa and Tumbuka communities in each country relative to each country's national political arena. In Malawi, Chewas and Tumbukas are each large groups vis-à-vis the country as a whole and, thus, serve as viable bases for political coalition-building. In Zambia, Chewas and Tumbukas are small relative to the country as a whole and, thus, not useful to mobilize as bases of political support. The analysis suggests that the political salience of a cultural cleavage depends not on the nature of the cleavage itself (since it is identical in both countries) but on the sizes of the groups it defines and whether or not they will be useful vehicles for political competition.