How Local Institutions Emerge from Civil War Regina Bateson Assistant Professor Department of Political Science MIT Oct. 2, 2015 The field research for this paper was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Yale University, and the Tinker Foundation. I gratefully acknowledge research support from tHe Universidad del Valle de Guatemala wHile in tHe field. At MIT, Meghan O’Dell provided superb research assistance. Please send comments and questions to
[email protected] . ABSTRACT: Civil wars are typically understood as destructive, leaving poor economic performance, damaged pHysical infrastructure, and reduced Human capital in their wake. But civil wars are also constructive, producing new local institutions that can persist into the postwar period. In this paper, I use qualitative evidence from Guatemala to demonstrate tHat even tHe most devastating conflicts can spawn durable local institutions. Specifically, I focus on the civil patrols, which were government-sponsored local militias during tHe Guatemalan civil war. AltHougH tHe Peace Accords of 1996 required tHe civil patrols to demobilize, I sHow tHat more nearly 20 years later, tHey are still patrolling, functioning as security patrols in tHeir communities today. After considering alternative explanations, I use Historical documents and ricH, etHnograpHic evidence to draw causal links between tHe wartime civil patrols and tHe present-day security patrols. These findings begin to fill a gaping hole in the literature on the civil wars, whicH—until now—has largely ignored the local institutional consequences of conflict. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ The study of civil wars is riven with intractable debates. When, where, and why are civil wars most likely (e.g.