Written by Bethany Lacina (University of Rochester), this chapter of A Political Science Experiment explores the following questions:

– Why is ethnicity part of politics?
– What determines ethnicity?
– How do political activists influence ethnicity?
– What is a nationality?
– What is ethnic nationalism?
– What is nation-building? How can it encourage nationalism?
– How did the number of countries in the nation-state system grow?
– What is an ethnonational state? How is it created?
– What additional forms of ethnic politics occur in countries that are not ethnonational states?
– What is and is not unique about ethnic politics in countries with settler-founded political systems?