How wartime recruitment affects political engagement among civilians: Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire

Philip A. Martin

World Development, 2025, vol. 187, issue C

Abstract: Promoting civic engagement and political participation in the aftermath of armed conflict is a key challenge for post-conflict recovery and development. This study investigates whether exposure to wartime recruitment by non-state armed groups increases non-combatants’ postwar political engagement. Extending existing theories of conflict and political participation, I argue that when territorial armed groups recruit more intensively within occupied communities, non-combatants in those communities are likely to remain more engaged in politics in the long run. Wartime recruitment increases the perceived salience of political issues among non-combatants, and fosters a stronger sense of entitlement to make claims on the postwar state. These legacies should be especially pronounced when the recruiting armed group holds power in the postwar political order. Empirically, I draw on original survey evidence and interviews from Côte d’Ivoire, leveraging geographic variation in communities’ exposure to recruitment by both winning and losing non-state armed groups. The results confirm that greater exposure to wartime recruitment is associated with increased political engagement among non-combatants seven years after the war’s end, especially in areas of high recruitment by winning rebels. Community exposure to recruitment does not increase pro-social attitudes or confidence in government, however. The findings underscore the legacies of wartime recruitment and inform debates about how conflict processes shape the political capacities of civilians.

Keywords: Civil war; Côte d’Ivoire; Political participation; Rebellion; Recruitment; State-citizen relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:187:y:2025:i:c:s0305750x24003061

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106836

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