Description
How does local wartime recruitment by winning rebel groups affect postwar political engagement among non-recruits in rebel-controlled territory? Building on existing theories of conflict and political participation, I argue that when armed groups recruit more intensively within occupied communities, non-combatants in these areas are likely to become more politically engaged in the postwar polity. The political effects of recruitment should be most powerful when the recruiting armed group goes on to hold power in the postwar state, because civilians exposed to past recruitment efforts by parties with current representation in the state will feel stronger entitlement to make claims on the postwar government. To illustrate this argument empirically, I draw on original survey evidence from Côte d'Ivoire, leveraging geographic variation in the intensity of wartime recruitment by both winning rebels and losing pro-government militias. The results confirm that more intensive wartime recruitment in localities controlled by winning rebels is associated with increased political participation in the postwar period, but not in areas controlled by pro-government militias. The findings illuminate how wartime processes shape postwar democracy and citizen-state relations in the aftermath of rebel victory.
