The Aftermath of War: Non-elite Organizational Capacity and Political Mobilization

Abstract: The ability of poor or disenfranchised groups to organize and credibly threaten violence has often been seen as a fundamental driver of institutional change. In this paper, we examine the role of shocks to the local organizational capacity of non-elites in driving political mobilization during the French Revolution, the Partition of South Asia and other settings. Drawing on novel data, among the shocks we examine in the French case are the role played by combat experience in the American War of Independence and other conflicts in fostering organizational capacity and leading to changes in the grievances expressed on the eve of Revolution, the membership and the political affiliations of the National Assembly, and the class cleansing that occurred during the Reign of Terror.