Logo
Munich Personal RePEc Archive

The Evolution of Sectarianism

Ille, Sebastian (2021): The Evolution of Sectarianism. Published in: Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation , Vol. 97, (21 January 2021): pp. 1-14.

[thumbnail of MPRA_paper_106451.pdf]
Preview
PDF
MPRA_paper_106451.pdf

Download (839kB) | Preview

Abstract

Human cooperation for reasons other than self-interest has long intrigued social scientists leading to a substantial literature in economics. Its complement –sectarianism – has not received closer attention in economics despite its significant impact. Based on a dynamic model, the paper shows that sectarianism can be understood as the outcome of a repeated bargaining process in which sectarian affiliation evolves into a pure coordination signal that attributes economic and political benefits. It demonstrates that such sectarian social contracts co-evolve with the sects’ degree of coerciveness and are self-reinforcing. Sectarian conflict may then not be a result of diverging religious ideologies but is shown to be caused by external manipulations of the signal (e.g. via identity politics), and internal political and economic grievances within a sect that spill over to the inter-sectarian level while adopting a sectarian appearance. Theoretical results are supported by empirical findings from the Middle East.

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact us: mpra@ub.uni-muenchen.de

This repository has been built using EPrints software.

MPRA is a RePEc service hosted by Logo of the University Library LMU Munich.