Vigilantes, Militias and the State: Local Authority and Security Provision

• In Event: State-Armed Group Relations: Cooperation, Conflict, and Cooptation

Abstract

Does the ability to provide effective security rely on local embeddedness or access to state-sanctioned violence? This paper uses OLS analysis of survey data and findings from 10 months of qualitative field research to examine key relationships between local armed groups, state security actors, and civilian perceptions of security provision in two regions of northern Uganda. Scholarly literature tends to view such groups either as "vigilantes" that emerges to fill a security vacuum or as "militias" that work in the service of the state. My analysis shows that in northern Uganda, these local groups are widespread, and are viewed as more helpful when functioning in areas where state security actors (especially the police) are also present. The article then uses findings from in-depth qualitative field research on local security arrangements in Uganda to probe whether this is this is because local policing groups derive authority from state security actors or vice versa, finding that there is more evidence to support the former explanation.

Author

• Rebecca Tapscott