From Violence to Voting: War and Political Participation in Uganda

Question 1

aim of Blattman

Answer 1

what is the political legacy of violent civil war

Question 2

research question of Blattman

Answer 2

does exposure to violence increase or decrease political participation among former combatants

Question 3

significance of Blattman

Answer 3

• challenges common assumptions that victims become politically disengaged
• major implications for post conflict reconstruction and reintegration efforts

Question 4

what is the blattman hypothesis

Answer 4

exposure to violence through abduction leads to higher levels of political participation, contradicting conventional expectations of social disengagement

Question 5

two concerns with blattman research

Answer 5

attrition and selection bias

Question 6

what is attrition blattman

Answer 6

what if abductees who never returned had attributes relevant to political engagement
- interviews / demographics data from surviving family members
- attrition probabilities factored into regression

Question 7

what is selection bias blattman

Answer 7

recruitment not random
- background historical overview
- interviews with LRA soldiers
- conditional mean difference test between abducted / non abducted populations

Question 8

implications for blattman

Answer 8

• policies should not assume former combatants are disengaged or dangerous, they can be politically active
• understanding that violence leading to activism could reshape post war governance strategies
• violence can shape political consciousness

Question 9

conclusions for blattman

Answer 9

• war experiences lead to increased political engagement such as in the forms of voting and community mobilization
• former abductees and people with more war experiences are generally not significantly more violent or disruptively anti social
• findings challenge current understanding of political behavior and highlight important avenues for future research