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Explaining Out-Group Bias in Weak States

Religion and Legibility in the 1891/1892 Russian Famine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2022

Volha Charnysh Open the ORCID record for Volha Charnysh [Opens in a new window]
Volha Charnysh*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
*
E-mail: charnysh@mit.edu
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Abstract

Two dominant explanations for ethnic bias in distributional outcomes are electoral incentives and out-group prejudice. This article proposes a novel and complementary explanation for the phenomenon: variation in legibility across ethnic groups. The author argues that states will allocate fewer resources to groups from which they cannot gather accurate information or collect taxes. The argument is supported by original data on state aid from the 1891/1892 famine in the Russian Empire. Qualitative and quantitative analyses show that districts with a larger Muslim population experienced higher famine mortality and received less generous public assistance. The Muslims, historically ruled via religious intermediaries, were less legible to state officials and generated lower fiscal revenues. State officials could not count on the repayment of food loans or collect tax arrears from Muslim communes, so they were more likely to withhold aid. State relief did not vary with the presence of other minorities that were more legible and generated more revenue.

Keywords

autocracydiscriminationdistributive politicsethnic biasethnic favoritismfamine relieffiscal capacitygovernanceindirect ruleinformational capacitylegibilityminoritiesMuslimsrebellionRussian Empiretaxation

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Research Article
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World Politics , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , April 2022 , pp. 205 - 248
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Copyright © 2022 Trustees of Princeton University

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