From Rebellion to Electoral Violence: Evidence from Burundi

Andrea Colombo, Olivia D'Aoust and Olivier Sterck

No 2014-20-2, CSAE Working Paper Series from Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford

Abstract: What causes electoral violence in post-conflict countries? The theoretical literature emphasizes the potential role of (1) ethnic grievances, (2) political competition and (3) specialists in violence. Our study is the first to test these three hypotheses simultaneously. Using a unique dataset on electoral violence in Burundi, we study variations in the intensity of electoral violence between neighboring municipalities, relying on the fact that these are more likely to have similar unobservable characteristics. Interestingly, we find that electoral violence did not result from ethnic grievances, which goes against the commonly held view that this factor necessarily plays a key role in violence in the region. Rather, we show that electoral violence is higher in municipalities characterized by acute polarization between demobilized rebel groups, fierce political competition and a high proportion of Hutu. The effect of political competition is stronger in the presence of numerous demobilized rebels

Keywords: Electoral violence; Polarization; Political competition; Demobilization; Burundi (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 O11 O17 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: From Rebellion to Electoral Violence: Evidence from Burundi (2014)
Working Paper: From Rebellion to Electoral Violence. Evidence from Burundi (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:csa:wpaper:2014-20-2

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