Investing in Authoritarian Rule: Punishment and Patronage in Rwanda's Gacaca Courts for Genocide Crimes

by Anuradha Chakravarty

Overview

This book shows how Rwanda's transitional courts that tried genocide crimes - the gacaca - produced social complicity and cemented authoritarian rule. It is unique for its in-depth investigation of the courts' legal operations: confessions, denunciation, and lay judging, and shows how targeted incentives such as grants of clemency, opportunities for private gain, and career advancement drew the masses into the orbit of the ethnic minority-dominated regime. Using previously untapped data, it illustrates how a decade of mass trials constructed a tacit patronage-driven relationship in which the interests of the citizenry became tied to the authoritarian elite that had discretionary power to grant or withdraw those benefits at will. The operation of law in individual behavior and authoritarian control presented in this volume will be of use to students and scholars in the social sciences, and practitioners interested in criminal law and transitional justice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781316028278
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/11/2015
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Anuradha Chakravarty is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina. Her work concerns a variety of rights-related political behaviors including protest, violence, and post-conflict recovery work, focusing on practical applications that may benefit vulnerable populations. She has been published in prominent outlets in political science and area studies (African Affairs), methodology (Field Methods), sociology (Mobilization), violence (Genocide Studies and Prevention) and ethics (Carnegie Ethics Online), among others.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Clientelist and Authoritarian Legacies: 1. A history of clientelism in Rwanda; 2. The RPF: an unrivaled patron; Part II. Formal and Informal Rules of the Game: 3. The mental map: shared expectations of rule; 4. The gacaca court: deciding innocence and guilt; Part III. Consolidating Authoritarianism: 5. Confessions: surrendering the right to rule; 6. Denunciations: local space and local control; 7. Judges: political cooptation at the grassroots; Conclusion.