Group formation and political conflict: Instrumental and expressive approaches

We construct models of the endogenous formation of political groups designed to capture some of the key features of political and social conflict. We draw on the 'citizen candidate' approach and consider both instrumental and expressive approaches to understanding group formation and conflict between groups. We argue that the inclusion of expressive elements into the analysis of political groups provides both new insights and a better fit with certain aspects of the realities of political conflict.