Polygyny and conflict1
Jul 27, 2023
Paper proposed for presentation at the 57th North American Meeting of the Peace Science Society (International)
(Saint Louis, November 9-11, 2023)
Kristian Skrede Gleditsch 2,
Simon Hug3 4,
Julian Wucherpfennig5
Abstract
Whether and how polygyny and related phenomena affect conflict has
become a hotly debated issue in the literature. On the one hand some
scholars suggest that polygyny makes civil wars, respectively
intercommunal violence, more likely, while others argue that not
polygyny in itself, but the treatment of women in society more broadly
is related to conflict. The underlying studies differ, however, with
respect to conceptual and measurement issues, as well with regard to
the postulated mechanisms. Relying on group-level data combined with
detailed information on polygyny as practiced by groups we shed new
light of the effect of the latter on conflict. More specifically we
find in our global sample that whether polygynous groups are involved
in civil conflicts is linked to their power relations and more
specifically to whether or not polygynous groups are also represented
in government. This suggests a subtle interplay between
characteristics of groups and the more general acceptance of worse
treatment of women in society.
Footnotes:
1Research assistance by Franziska Weber is gratefully acknowleged.
2University of Essex, Essex
3Département de science politique, Faculté des sciences de la société; Université de Genève; 40 Bd du Pont d'Arve; 1211 Genève 4; Switzerland; email: simon.hug@unige.ch
4 CefES research fellow, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca
5
Hertie School of Governance,
Friedrichstr. 180,
10117 Berlin, Germany;
email: wucherpfennig@hertie-school.org
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