A broad consensus has emerged among practitioners and researchers that failure to build accountable and legitimate institutions is a critical risk factor associated with vicious circles of repeated violence. Despite this consensus, very few studies have tested the extent to which local...

This paper addresses the conditions under which donor and non-state actor service provision is likely to undermine or strengthen citizens' legitimating beliefs. On the one hand, citizens may be less likely to support their government with quasi-voluntary compliance when they credit non-state...

A central policy of the Government of Indonesia's strategy for enhancing its country's economic and social development is to develop infrastructure and expand service delivery. Public procurement reform is a key component of this policy. Despite the decentralization of financial responsibility...

How do natural resources and ethnic exclusion interact to incite or mitigate domestic conflict? The impact of natural resources and ethnicity on conflict dynamics has mostly been studied separately within cross-country analyses. This paper in contrast engages in an empirical analysis of the...

The Internet and mobile phones have rapidly spread around the world in the last decade. Today many citizens, including those in the poorest countries, have access to cell phones. What is the impact of this new technology on political protest? In this paper, we take a first step at investigating...