Ethnic Elites and Rituals of Provocation

Prominent theories of ethnic conflict argue that instrumental ethnic elites incite violence in order to promote their own power. Yet this approach focuses primarily on political leaders and ignores other ethnic elites, meaning that we know little about how other influential actors think about provocation. In this paper, I present novel data from Northern Ireland on diverse elite attitudes toward polarising Protestant parades with a long history of sparking ethnic violence. Using original surveys of Protestant elected officials and clergy as well as interviews with ex-paramilitaries, this paper demonstrates that these elite groups have different, often competing, interests and opinions regarding contested parades: while politicians tend to support provocative parades, the others do not. By addressing elite actors that are often ignored, I present a more nuanced picture of elite-mass relations and ethnic mobilisation in conflict

Criminology · Elite · Ethnic conflict · Ethnic group · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Protestantism · Provocation test · Sociology · Gender Studies · Irish and British Studies · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Psychology

• Contentious Rituals and Intergroup Relations

  Open Access•Kit Rickard, Giovanni Hollenweger et al.•British Journal of Political…•2025

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