Former Rebels and Democracy

• In Event: Post-Conflict Elections and Peace

Abstract

Do voters punish candidates' rebel past? Provisions for the social, political, and economic reintegration of former combatants are cornerstones for successful and sustainable peace settlements. However, due to their insurgent past, former rebels have difficulty reintegrating into society, often facing resentment and ostracism. The empirical literature on rebel-to-party transitions has focused largely on the functioning of former rebel parties and much less on the performance of former rebel candidates. Through a survey experiment and elite interviews conducted shortly before the 2019 Colombian local elections, I find that having a rebel past significantly reduces the support for a political candidate. Independent of the candidate's political platform and experience, voters focus largely on past rebel affiliation, raising substantial concerns for peace, reconciliation, and political and economic reintegration in post-conflict contexts. This research provides unique empirical data on rebel affiliation as a key informative heuristic for candidate support in post-conflict environments and on the microfoundations of former rebel electoral performance in the aftermath of conflict.

Author

• Marcela Ibanez, University of Zurich