Politics After Rebel Governance: Legacies on Political and Policy Preferences

• In Event: Public Goods Provision during War: Evidence from the Colombian Case

Abstract

How does living under the governance of wartime armed actors influence individual preferences regarding redistributive policies? How do these shifts then affect local level state-building in the post-conflict period? Much of the recent literature regarding violent conflict’s impact on political participation centers on the frequency and types of political behavior after victimization, rather than individual program preferences. This paper explores the latter, with specific attention to individual political preferences regarding redistributive politics after experiencing violence and wartime governance at the hands of non-state armed actors. Using original, individual-level survey data from communities in Colombia, I first explore variation in political support for social programs among individuals that did and did not experience non-state wartime governance. I then use municipal and department-level data to understand how these shifts in political preferences were consequential to patterns of local-level governance pursued after armed actors no longer had control over civilians. This paper thus contributes to further understanding of violent conflict in two dimensions: 1) the legacies of wartime institutions on individuals and 2) the opportunities and constraints faced by local power-holders in pursuing governance at conflict’s end.

Author

• Sarah Moore