Democratization and Civil War

Abstract

This article examines the impact of civil war on democratization, particu- larly focusing on whether civil war provides an opportunity for institu- tional reform. We investigate the impact of war termination in general, along with prolonged violence, rebel victory and international interven- tion on democratization. Using an unbalanced panel data set of 96 coun- tries covering a 34-year period, our analysis suggests that civil war lowers democratization in the succeeding period. Our findings also suggest that United Nations intervention increases democratization, as do wars ending in stalemates. However, wars ending in rebel victories seem to reduce democratization. These findings appear robust to conditioning, different instrument sets, modelling techniques and the measurement of democracy.