Government Quality and Vertical Power-Sharing in Fractionalized States

Recent empirical studies have demonstrated that ethno-linguistic diversity has a negative relationship with quality of government (QoG). In response to this challenge, states have two broad options with respect to vertical power-sharing. One, they can attempt to integrate various factions by adopting a unitary, centralized constitution. Two, they can accommodate minority groups with ethno-federalism, giving them a degree of regional autonomy. Using numerous QoG indicators in a cross-sectional regression from 1995 to 2004, the data show that ethno-federalism outperforms its integrationist rival for each QoG measure employed in the analysis. While numerous other empirical studies have examined the impact of ethno-federal institutions on either civil conflict or separatism, this is the first to assess the effects of this institution on government quality relative to integrationist states.