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Between Democracy and Revolution: Peasant Support for Insurgency versus Democracy in Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • Madhav Joshi

    (Department of Political Science, University of North Texas, joshimr@unt.edu)

  • T. David Mason

    (Department of Political Science, University of North Texas, masontd@unt.edu)

Abstract

The Maoist insurgency in Nepal presents an anomaly for students of civil war and democratic transitions. How was the Maoist wing of the Nepal Communist Party able to mobilize peasants to support their insurgency when they could not mobilize enough peasants to vote for them in elections? The authors address these questions by exploring the ways in which the persistence of traditional clientelist networks in the countryside enabled rural elites to mobilize peasants to vote for parties other than the Maoist party, even though peasants would have benefited from that party's advocacy for land reform. When that same party used insurgent violence against rural elites, peasants were willing and able to support the insurgency and abstain from voting in the 1999 election in locales where the insurgency succeeded in disrupting clientelist ties. The authors test these arguments with district-level data on election turnout and the distribution of households among several land-tenure categories. Findings support the argument that turnout was greater where land-tenure patterns gave landed elite greater influence over peasant political behavior. Where higher levels of insurgent violence disrupted patterns of clientelist dependency, turnout declined. What electoral democracy could not deliver to peasants — land reform and relief from clientelist dependency — the Maoist insurgency promised to bring through political violence.

Suggested Citation

  • Madhav Joshi & T. David Mason, 2008. "Between Democracy and Revolution: Peasant Support for Insurgency versus Democracy in Nepal," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 45(6), pages 765-782, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:joupea:v:45:y:2008:i:6:p:765-782
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    Cited by:

    1. Maria Paula Saffon & Fabio Sánchez, 2019. "Historical grievances and war dynamics: Old land conflicts as a cause of current forced displacements in Colombia," Documentos CEDE 17320, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    2. repec:foi:wpaper:2010_13 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Bruce Desmarais & Jeffrey Harden, 2014. "An unbiased model comparison test using cross-validation," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 2155-2173, July.
    4. Aryal, Jeetendra P. & Holden, Stein T., 2011. "Caste Discrimination, Land Reforms and Land Market Performance in Nepal," CLTS Working Papers 1/11, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 10 Oct 2019.

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