Electoral turnout and democratic enthusiasm in post-Civil War states

Abstract

This thesis seeks to build on the ideas of Reyko Huang and her civilian mobilization theory as well as the role of democratization in post-civil war states. Her analysis does not demonstrate that civilian populations truly became engaged in the post-civil war government through increased levels of participation. This thesis seeks to test Huang’s ideas by utilizing electoral turnout as a gauge on whether the civilian population embraces democracy. This thesis’ results found that civilian aid backed rebels had no significant effect on turnout. Finally, it also found that civil wars that had Marxist rebel groups decreased voter turnout rates. Much of this contradicts Huang’s findings as she stated that civilian aid backed, as well as Marxist, rebels will produce higher rates of democratization. Yet this is determined to be due to Huang’s definitional issues of what constitutes democracy. The Polity IV scale blurs the lines on democratization and liberalization.