11:20 - 13:00
P12
Room:
Room: Terrace 2B
Panel Session 12
Carmela Lutmar - Border Walls and Leader Survival: Exploring Initial Empirical Links
Oguzhan Turkoglu - Preferences for refugee settlement
Sergi Martínez - The domestic consequences of symbolic conflict resolution
Alex Weisiger - The Internal Balance of Power in Weak States
Jesse Dillon Savage - Political Pull Factors and International Human Capital
The domestic consequences of symbolic conflict resolution
P12-4
Presented by: Sergi Martínez
Sergi Martínez 1, Vicente Valentim 2, Elias Dinas 1
1 European University Institute
2 University of Oxford

What are the domestic consequences of symbolic conflict resolution? We isolate the effect of symbolic conflict by looking into a dispute with no material stakes (for one side), but high symbolic ones: the Prespa Agreement, which put an end to the dispute on the official name of FYROM (henceforth North Macedonia). Greek nationals opposed this name because the Macedonian heritage is central to their national identity. Based on social identity theory, we expect this threat to the group's distinctiveness to increase Greek ingroupism. Using an original dataset of flags displayed in the façade of buildings in Athens and Thessaloniki, which we compare to Lisbon (control group), we find an increase in national flags in the two Greek cities after the Agreement. The effect is most remarkable in Thessaloniki (capital of Greek Macedonia), where the identity threat was stronger. We also find that the treaty increased radical right vote in Greek Macedonia.