Replication Data for: Coercive Legacies: From Rebel Governance to Authoritarian Control

Ex-rebels govern almost a quarter of sub-Saharan Africa today. How does war affect these countries' long-run political development, and what explains their rebel regimes' longevity? I theorize about the role of coercion in wartime social control and rebel governance: post-war governance draws from wartime strategies, leading to (1) the continued use of organized coercion in post-war politics when faced with challenges to ruling party dominance, and (2) where such coercion is most effectively employed to ensure support. I examine Zimbabwe where the anti-colonial rebel party, ZANU-PF, has remained in power since winning control in 1980. Using archival data, I map pre-war to current-day administrative divisions and code a novel measure of wartime governance. I combine these data with current-day Afrobarometer surveys to demonstrate long-run subnational variation in coercive political control. Findings deepen our understanding of war’s effects on peacetime politics, helping to explain the lack of political turnover despite regular elections in many post-conflict states.