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Institutions, Civilian Resistance, and Wartime Social Order: A Process-driven Natural Experiment in the Colombian Civil War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ana Arjona
Ana Arjona*
Affiliation:
Northwestern University. ana.arjona@northwestern.edu
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Abstract

Why do armed groups fighting in civil wars establish different institutions in territories where they operate? This article tests the mechanisms of a theory that posits that different forms of wartime social order are the outcome of a process in which an aspiring ruler—an armed group—expands the scope of its rule as much as possible unless civilians push back. Instead of being always at the mercy of armed actors, civilians arguably have bargaining power if they can credibly threaten combatants with collective resistance. Such resistance, in turn, is a function of the quality of preexisting local institutions. Using a process-driven natural experiment in three villages in Central Colombia, this article traces the effects of institutional quality on wartime social order.

The FARC were everything in this village. They had the last word

on every single dispute among neighbors. They decided what

could be sold at the stores, the time when we should all go home, and

who should leave the area never to come back.... They also

managed divorces, inheritances, and conflicts over land borders.

They were the ones who ruled here, not the state.

— Local leader, village of Librea, municipality of Viotá

We [the peasant leaders] are the authority here.

People recognize us as such. [The FARC] could not take

that away from us. They didn’t rule us.

— Local leader, village of Zama, municipality of Viotá

Type
Research
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , Fall 2016 , pp. 99 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2016

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