Publication

This paper focuses on how different institutional arrangements in political systems affect leaders’ incentives to commit mass murder. The authors argue that rulers are less likely to target civilians and cause human insecurity in political systems that effectively impose institutional limits on executive power. Using a random effects logit model, they test hypotheses using Harff’s (2003) dataset on politicides and genocides, 1955-2001. The paper emphasizes that ethnic diversity is not related to mass killings, not even in political systems with limitations on executive power.