Rebel Iron Fist

Abstract

Conventional and tired characterizations of civil wars invoke images of endless chaos and relentless violence perpetuated by armed groups. In reality, civil wars are defned by unique forms of wartime social and political order, and are anything but chaotic.1 This study focuses on ‘rebel governance’ as a specifc rebel-civilian sociopolitical relationship in which rebel groups participate in the administration of civilian afairs. Using disaggregated data on rebel governance in 122 civil wars, I examine the relationship between the character of rebel governance used by rebel groups and the use of violence against civilians. Contrary to existing characterizations of rebel governance, the results of the large-N analysis show rebel governance, particularly the provision of social services, to be positively related to confict violence. Through further qualitative analysis of governance in the case of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), I point to the necessary role of violence in the administration of rebel governance and rebel group capacity as two preliminary explanations for the observed relationship.