Civilian autonomy in civil war
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This study argues that civilians be considered as actors with agency and addresses their varying ability to organize to protect human rights when caught in the cross-fire. Much of the research on civil wars suggests that when civilians are caught between two warring armies, they can do little other than flee for safety or take sides. Yet some civilian communities have gained autonomy, or been able to maintain democratic decision-making power over outcomes for the community within the community, minimizing influence from outside armed groups. What explains this community-level variation? I draw on insights from comparative politics about social capital as well as theories of conflict and cooperation to explain how and when civilians' cohesion and organizational capabilities facilitate institutional solutions at the local level to reduce civil war violence. These solutions can be especially useful when interventions to protect civilians are delayed or rare and where states are weak and cannot evenly provide justice. I employ a multi-method empirical strategy that deals with the issues of reverse causality between the impact of civilians and armed groups as well as possible selection bias of examining only well-known community "cases." Empirical tests use data I collected during fieldwork in Colombia. These include numerous micro-level data sources from both government and private sector organizations, participant observation and numerous interviews with civilians, government officials, and ex-combatants in both rural and urban settings, as well as archival documents. I find that, all other things equal, well-organized communities in Colombia suffer less violence than those that are less organized and that these varying levels of organization are not simply results of historical conflict patterns or armed actor permissiveness. Qualitative case studies deeply explore the mechanisms of how different well-organized communities have actually coped with threats of violence and kept them from resulting in civilian deaths.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2010 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Kaplan, Oliver Ross |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Political Science. |
| Primary advisor | Laitin, David D |
| Thesis advisor | Laitin, David D |
| Thesis advisor | Karl, Terry Lynn, 1947- |
| Thesis advisor | Schultz, Kenneth |
| Thesis advisor | Weinstein, Jeremy M |
| Advisor | Karl, Terry Lynn, 1947- |
| Advisor | Schultz, Kenneth |
| Advisor | Weinstein, Jeremy M |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Oliver Ross Kaplan. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Political Science. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2010 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2010 by Oliver Ross Kaplan
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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