Policing in a Post-Conflict State: Evidence from Uganda

Abstract

How do governments in post-conflict settings provide for policing within their countries? I argue that leaders respond to both electoral concerns and security threats in shaping the geographic provision of policing infrastructure. Focusing on Uganda, I contend that the territorial expansion of policing has followed a distinct political logic. First, I use panel data on police infrastructure to demonstrate increased construction in counties with previously lower electoral support for the incumbent regime. Additionally, I find that counties with violence are more likely to experience increases in construction, but especially in areas where the incumbent has more support. Finally, I show that (1) proximity to police infrastructure is associated with worse individual perceptions of the police and (2) that increased construction of police infrastructure has large significant effects on reducing voter turnout while increasing vote share for the incumbent president. These findings have important implications for post-conflict reconstruction, stability, and violence.

The “Dark Side” of Community Ties: Collective Action and Lynching in Mexico

“…The role of the state as weak, deficient, illegitimate, or even abusive is particularly important in this regard, as such factors provide opportunity and legitimacy to local communities to autonomously engage in social control ( Taylor 1982 ). The acceptance of the practice of lynching and other forms of informal justice is directly related to the strength of the state ( Dow et al 2024 ; Krakowski and Kursani 2023 ). State agents may even negotiate with lynch mobs, tolerate them, and actively legitimate occasional violence for the purpose of social control ( Fuentes Díaz and González 2022 ; Gaby et al 2021 ).…”

“… 4. Several authors use the term vigilantism similarly to my understanding of lynching (e.g., Dow et al 2024 ; Smith 2019 ). …”

“…Prior research has speculated about a link between community ties and lynching ( Godoy 2006 ; Goldstein et al 2007 ; Smith 2019 ; Zizumbo-Colunga 2015 , 2019 ), but this is the first study using original and fine-grained lynching participation and event data to examine this hypothesis. Unlike a growing body of research focusing on attitudes toward lynching (e.g., Dow et al 2024 ; Freire and Skarbek 2023 ; Nivette 2016 ; Wilke 2022 ), this study delves deeper by analyzing actual participation in lynching. Using support as a proxy for participation is limited, as it captures preferences but not decision-making ( Agostini and van Zomeren 2021 ; Granovetter 1978 ).…”

Ethnicity and Policing in the Global South: Descriptive Representation and Expectations of Police Bias

“…There are good reasons, however, to think that the effect of officer-citizen coethnicity is not invariant across political contexts and ethnic groups. The security apparatus is often shaped by political incentives (Dow, 2022; Hassan, 2017), with implications for the ethnic composition of the police force. In particular, it might be that the police force is structured so that certain ethnic groups are descriptively underrepresented in its ranks.…”