The words that keep people apart: official language and accountability
The words that keep people apart: official language and accountability
This paper examines how the distance between a country’s official language and the languages spoken by its citizens influences accountability. Two arguments support this relationship: first, the role of language as a tool for communication between elites and citizens; and second, its role in shaping cultural patterns that
underpin social interactions. Using a dataset of 147 countries, we reveal a consistent negative correlation between linguistic distance and levels of accountability across all measures. Higher educational attainment can mitigate the negative impact of a foreign official language on accountability.
Accountability, education, language policy
Foresta, Alessandra
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Baronchelli, Adelaide
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Ricciuti, Roberto
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Foresta, Alessandra
aaf8f667-e9bb-410d-bedc-da9bd6fff3bc
Baronchelli, Adelaide
d9e73afc-64af-4e87-8c73-5ad061eb0f31
Ricciuti, Roberto
69e0177a-c8f3-4b4a-b2a5-0341cd04641c
Foresta, Alessandra, Baronchelli, Adelaide and Ricciuti, Roberto
(2025)
The words that keep people apart: official language and accountability.
Journal of Institutional Economics, 21, [e35].
(doi:10.1017/S1744137425100209).
Abstract
This paper examines how the distance between a country’s official language and the languages spoken by its citizens influences accountability. Two arguments support this relationship: first, the role of language as a tool for communication between elites and citizens; and second, its role in shaping cultural patterns that
underpin social interactions. Using a dataset of 147 countries, we reveal a consistent negative correlation between linguistic distance and levels of accountability across all measures. Higher educational attainment can mitigate the negative impact of a foreign official language on accountability.
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Accepted/In Press date: 4 August 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 1 October 2025
Keywords:
Accountability, education, language policy
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 505967
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/505967
ISSN: 1744-1374
PURE UUID: 02468995-ebc2-47b9-96e5-d5502d81e6e9
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Date deposited: 24 Oct 2025 16:42
Last modified: 25 Oct 2025 02:14
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Author:
Alessandra Foresta
Author:
Adelaide Baronchelli
Author:
Roberto Ricciuti
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