Citation:
Date Presented:
February 5Abstract:
This thesis project investigates how interactions between the Peruvian state and peasant auto-defense civil society groups have impacted the capacity of these organizations over time. The institutional legacy of the civil society organizations is also taken into account to analyze the role it has in shaping the response of civil society groups to state intervention. Therefore, I analyze how state intervention through cooperation, co-optation, or repression has affected the capacity and development of these civil society organizations in the short and long term. I hypothesize that in a cooperative environment with the state, civil society organizations will be strengthened in the short and long run regardless of the existence of an institutional legacy. Co-optation will be beneficial to an organization’s capacity in the short run regardless of institutional legacy, but in the long run co-optation will be detrimental. Lastly, repression in the short run is detrimental regardless of institutional legacy but in the long run it can be beneficial for civil society organizations that had a strong institutional legacy while continuing to be detrimental to those that didn’t. The methodology of this project consists of case studies of the three main types of peasant auto-defense civil society groups in Peru: peasant patrols, neighborhood watch groups, and auto defense committees. Overall this project hopes to shed some light on the mechanisms that hinder or promote capacity building of civil society groups as a result of different types of state intervention. I’m still working on placing the hypothesis within a larger theoretical framework of state-civil society relations and would welcome any feedback.