Coloured Lenses? Disentangling perceptions and attitudes towards horizontal redistribution in Kenya and Nigeria

Despite the widespread recognition of the importance of inequalities between ethnic groups or so-called ‘horizontal inequalities’ (HIs) for multi-ethnic societies, extremely little research has been conducted on two important and closely related dimensions of this concept and phenomenon: 1) the relationship between objective and perceived HIs, and 2) people’s attitudes towards redistributive policies aimed at correcting the existing HIs or so-called ‘horizontal redistribution’. The project addresses these two important –yet neglected- dimensions of HIs by systematically investigating and analyzing the determinants of people’s perceptions of socio-economic HIs as well as their attitudes towards horizontal redistribution in Kenya and Nigeria; two countries with sharp and persistent inequalities between different ethnic groups. In order to gain a better understanding of these important dimensions of horizontal inequality, we will employ an iterative mixed methods research design in both countries, whereby the insights gained in the first qualitative phase will feed into our quantitative data collection and analysis.