No Neutral Ground: NGOs and Democracy Promotion after Civil War
Pre-order on Amazon or Cambridge University Press
Cover art by Soro Pehah Jacques
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No Neutral Ground examines the complexities of promoting democracy after civil wars, focusing on the role of domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs). While peace and democracy promoting NGOs are expected to be impartial in their activities, in the aftermath of violence, citizens may distrust these organizations and perceive them as exclusionary, detracting from their effectiveness. The book explores how post-war polarization shapes the interactions among citizens, NGO leaders, and governments, influencing citizen attitudes toward democracy promotion. Each actor is shaped by the destabilizing effects of war, resulting in unintended consequences. Drawing on extensive original data collected through years of fieldwork in Côte d’Ivoire, encompassing interviews, participant observation, focus groups, surveys, experiments, and lab-in-the-field games, No Neutral Ground reassesses the theory and practice of post-conflict democratization and offers insights into whether and how wartime legacies might be overcome to achieve democracy.
Based on my dissertation which received the Best Dissertation Award (2020) from the Western Political Science Association
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“Justine Davis's No Neutral Ground puts the role of local democracy-promotion NGOs under the microscope. Davis's careful and politically sensitive analysis shows us that for local civil society associations and the publics they engage, both hope and mistrust shape the complex tasks of rebuilding community, state and nation.” - Catherine Boone, London School of Economics
"Can NGOs truly be 'neutral' in a landscape scarred by civil war? Davis powerfully argues that they cannot. No Neutral Ground is a sophisticated, sobering, and essential analysis of the limits of civil society in polarized settings." – Susan Hyde, University of California, Berkeley
"In this scintillating book, Davis helps us better understand why democracy does not always easily take root in post-conflict settings. Davis brilliantly brings the behavior and motivation of NGO leaders to the fore." - Gwyneth McClendon, New York University
“No Neutral Ground is a landmark study of post-civil war democracy in Africa. Davis's fieldwork is extraordinary in its depth methodological pluralism, combining behavioral games, survey experiments, qualitative interviews, and cross-national data. It serves as essential reading for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers alike.” - Leonard Wantchekon, Princeton University