Identifying Pathways for Organizational Transformation of Former Rebel Parties

• In Event: Post-Conflict Elections and Peace

Abstract

What organizational types of parties do former rebel parties become? As Ishiyama and Basnet (2023) found, rebel parties are NOT a unique organizational type of party, albeit they have common origins as civil war participants. This suggests that there are multiple pathways of organizational development. As many scholars of party organization and democratization have argued, the organizational types of parties that emerge that populate the political environment in countries in transition are crucial elements of building peace and democracy. Parties that are politically moderate and integrative organizations, are, ceteris paribus, preferable to radical and politically parochial organizations in helping to promote peace and democracy. What are the organizational pathways that rebel parties follow after the end of civil wars? In this paper I develop a theory of rebel party organizational development (derived from much of the classic literature on party organizational development in democratizing states) based three sets of factors: 1) the characteristics of the organization itself, particularly who “wins” the struggle for dominance inside the party, pragmatists or radicals? 2) the characteristics of the political environment, particularly the structure of competition, and electoral incentives provided by political institutions 3) the role played by international actors in affect the course of rebel party organizational development. I then test this empirically using data from the V-Dem/V-Party project, and a select number of illustrative case studies.

Author

• John Ishiyama, University of North Texas