IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2024-18.html

Indirect rule: armed groups and customary chiefs in eastern DRC

Author

Listed:
  • Soeren J. Henn
  • Gauthier Marchais
  • Christian Mastaki Mugaruka
  • Raúl Sánchez de la Sierra

Abstract

This paper leverages a novel panel dataset covering the histories of 306 chiefs and 256 episodes of village governance and taxation by armed groups in 106 villages in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to analyse the relationship between the governance of armed groups and the power of rural chiefs. The paper devises a strategy to measure chiefs' power, as well as the governance and taxation arrangements established by armed groups along several dimensions.

Suggested Citation

  • Soeren J. Henn & Gauthier Marchais & Christian Mastaki Mugaruka & Raúl Sánchez de la Sierra, 2024. "Indirect rule: armed groups and customary chiefs in eastern DRC," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2024-18, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2024-18
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2024-18-indirect-rule-armed-groups-customary-chiefs-eastern-DRC.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julian Wucherpfennig & Philipp Hunziker & Lars‐Erik Cederman, 2016. "Who Inherits the State? Colonial Rule and Postcolonial Conflict," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(4), pages 882-898, October.
    2. Judith Verweijen & Vicky Van Bockhaven, 2020. "Revisiting colonial legacies in knowledge production on customary authority in Central and East Africa," Journal of Eastern African Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 1-23, January.
    3. Raúl Sánchez de la Sierra, 2020. "On the Origins of the State: Stationary Bandits and Taxation in Eastern Congo," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(1), pages 32-74.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vanessa van den Boogaard & Yannick Lokaya Bokasola & Gayatri Sahgal & Caleb Jérémie Dohou, 2026. "Beyond the state, but reinforcing it? Informal tax institutions and state legitimacy in the Democratic Republic of Congo," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2026-12, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leopoldo Fergusson & Horacio Larreguy & Juan Felipe Riaño, 2022. "Political Competition and State Capacity: Evidence from a Land Allocation Program in Mexico," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(648), pages 2815-2834.
    2. Ryan H. Murphy & Colin O’Reilly, 2023. "Freedom through taxation: the effect of fiscal capacity on the rule of law," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 69-90, August.
    3. Solveig Hillesund, 2019. "Choosing Whom to Target: Horizontal Inequality and the Risk of Civil and Communal Violence," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(2), pages 528-554, February.
    4. Jacob N. Shapiro & Oliver Vanden Eynde, 2023. "Fiscal Incentives for Conflict: Evidence from India's Red Corridor," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(1), pages 217-225, January.
    5. Travers B Child, 2023. "Losing Hearts & Minds: Aid and Ideology," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 67(2-3), pages 457-493, February.
    6. Poignant, Adrian, 2023. "Small-scale mining and agriculture: Evidence from northwestern Tanzania," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    7. Agneman, Gustav, 2025. "Conflict victimization shapes norms of rule compliance: Evidence from Colombia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    8. Maleke Fourati & Victoire Girard & Jeremy Laurent-Lucchetti, 2021. "Sexual violence as a weapon of war," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2103, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    9. Solveig Hillesund & Gudrun Østby, 2023. "Horizontal inequalities, political violence, and nonviolent conflict mobilization: A review of the literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 1589-1635, December.
    10. Blumenstock, Joshua & Callen, Michael & Faikina, Anastasiia & Fiorin, Stefano & Ghani, Tarek, 2023. "Strengthening Fragile States: Evidence from Mobile Salary Payments in Afghanistan," CEPR Discussion Papers 18254, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Laville,Camille & Mandon,Pierre Jean-Claude, 2023. "Internal Conflicts and Shocks. A Narrative Meta-Analysis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10315, The World Bank.
    12. Naudé, Wim & Amorós, Ernesto & Brück, Tilman, 2023. "State-Based Conflict and Entrepreneurship: Empirical Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 15946, IZA Network @ LISER.
    13. Solveig Hillesund, 2022. "To fight or demonstrate? Micro foundations of inequality and conflict," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 39(2), pages 166-190, March.
    14. Gustav Agneman, 2022. "Conflict Victimization and Civilian Obedience: Evidence from Colombia," HiCN Working Papers 379, Households in Conflict Network.
    15. Richard, Marion & Vanden Eynde, Oliver, 2023. "Cooperation between National Armies: Evidence from the Sahel borders," CEPR Discussion Papers 18674, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Melanie Arntz & Sebastian Findeisen & Stephan Maurer & Oliver Schlenker, 2024. "Are we yet sick of new technologies? The unequal health effects of digitalization," CEP Discussion Papers dp1984, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    17. repec:hal:cepnwp:hal-05021482 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Neu, Dean, 2023. "Fragile assets: Street gangs and the extortion business," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    19. Shivaji Mukherjee, 2018. "Colonial Origins of Maoist Insurgency in India," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 62(10), pages 2232-2274, November.
    20. Adamson, Jordan, 2025. "Trade and the rise of ancient Greek city-states," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    21. Fetzer, Thiemo & Vanden Eynde, Oliver & Wright, Austin L., 2026. "Team production on the battlefield: Evidence from NATO in Afghanistan," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2024-18. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.