How Partisanship and Insecurity Shapes Trust in Coercive Security Institutions

• In Event: State Repression and Human Rights I

Abstract

The fundamental role of the state is to provide security. The state relies on both coercion and trust from citizens to be effective. In post-conflict and fragile societies, people are exposed to violence and other sources of insecurity undermining their confidence in the state. In many authoritarian contexts, governments employ coercive institutions against political opponents further decreasing individuals’ trust in security institutions. Drawing on novel survey data from northern Uganda, this study explores how partisanship, exposure to political violence, and fear of crime shapes individuals’ levels of trust in security institutions including the police and army and other government institutions. Using a within-ethnic group design, the results suggest that in this post-conflict environment people opposed to the incumbent government expressed less trust in the police, security forces tasked with day-to-day repressive behavior, but more confidence in the army. The study provides important implications for how scholars of comparative politics and international relations think about the role of coercive security institutions, political violence, and perceptions of crime in post-conflict and authoritarian societies.

Author

• Travis B. Curtice, Drexel University