Democratization and Civil War
28 Pages Posted: 29 Aug 2012 Last revised: 20 Jul 2013
Date Written: June 4, 2013
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of civil war on democracy. Drawing from the literature on war and democracy, we investigate the impact of prolonged violence, war termination, rebel victory, and international intervention on democratization. Using an unbalanced panel data set of 96 countries covering a 34-year period, our analysis suggests that civil war lowers democratization in the succeeding period. Our findings suggest that United Nations intervention increases democratization, as do wars ending in stalemates. However, wars ending in rebel victories seem to reduce democracy. These findings appear robust to conditioning, different instrument sets, and the measurement of democracy.
Keywords: Civil War, Democracy, Conflict, Democratization, Outcomes of War
JEL Classification: H56, N40, O11
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation