Description
Unlike other studies of rebel governance that draw significance from the perspective of the State, this study focuses on the perspective of the affected civilian population. We investigate the interactions between the ‘Zapatista’ civilians in Mexico and the NSAG that governed them, the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN). The agency of Zapatista civilians is interpreted through their ability to affect change in the behaviour of the EZLN. We therefore study the actions of the Zapatistas, which are causally traced using a Process Tracing (PT) method to change in the behaviour of the EZLN. Initially, EZLN rebellion mimicked the violent logics and practices of the State and its military hierarchy and, their legitimacy was at least partially drawn from national symbols. Sustained interactions with civil society, however, prompted the EZLN to distance themselves from these practices, transforming into a more democratic movement that operated in autonomy from the State, rejecting violence as a means of interaction (despite the continued violence of and from the State), and accepting peaceful political negotiations. We therefore find that the Zapatistas had a significant impact on the behaviour of the EZLN, generating fundamental transformations in institutions (norms, rules, and practices), governance and policy. By contributing to burgeoning research on civilian agency in theories of non-state actor change this study advances understandings of negotiated state-building.
