This book is a first cut at building and rebuilding our theories of politics and economics on a fortified constructivist foundation it proposes a new conceptual framework for thinking about ethnic identity it uses this framework to synthesize constructivist arguments into a set of testable propositions about how and why ethnic identities change it translates this framework and the propositions derived from it into a new combinatorial language and it employs these conceptual . Constructivist theories of ethnic politics is a first cut at rebuilding theories of the relationship between ethnicity politics and economics on a fortified constructivist foundation it proposes a new conceptual framework for thinking about ethnic identity it uses this framework to synthesize constructivist arguments into a set of propositions about how and why ethnic identities change it translates this framework and the propositions derived from it into a new combinatorial . The book is motivated by a disjuncture in social science research on ethnicity politics and economics although theories of the formation of ethnic groups are driven by the constructivist. The book is motivated by a disjuncture in social science research on ethnicity politics and economics although theories of the formation of ethnic groups are driven by the constructivist assumption that ethnic identities can change over time theories of the effect of ethnicity on economic and political outcomes are driven by the primordialist assumption that these identities are fixed this book is a first cut at building and rebuilding our theories of politics and economics on a