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Social Identity and Voting in Afghanistan: Evidence from a Survey Experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2015

Torsten Jochem ,
Ilia Murtazashvili  and
Jennifer Murtazashvili
Torsten Jochem
Affiliation:
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Amsterdam, Plantage Muidergracht 12, 1018 TV Amsterdam, Netherlands, e-mail: t.jochem@uva.nl
Ilia Murtazashvili
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, 3424 Posvar Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA, e-mail: imurtaz@pitt.edu
Jennifer Murtazashvili
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, 3806 Posvar Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA, e-mail: jmurtaz@pitt.edu
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Abstract

The basis of social identity in Afghanistan is the concept of qawm. As qawm refers to an individual’s solidarity group, such as village, tribe, subtribe, or even ethnic group, it captures broad in-group/out-group distinctions. We analyze a survey experiment to explore how qawm affiliation affects individual perceptions of politicians running for a fictitious local election. Contrary to expectations derived from the literatures on Afghanistan and on identity politics, we find qawm affiliation does not influence voter choice or perceived importance that a fellow qawm member should be elected. Moreover, qawm affiliation actually undermines individual perceptions a candidate will work on behalf of voters if elected. We explore two general mechanisms that may explain these findings, including weakening social ties and salience of the qawm.

Keywords

Social identityAfghanistantribeconflictsurvey experiment
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Experimental Political Science , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , Spring 2015 , pp. 47 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © The Experimental Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

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