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

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.

Author: Anuradha Chakravarty
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 12/11/2015
Pages: 390
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.52lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.88d
ISBN: 9781107084087

About the Author
Chakravarty, Anuradha: - 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.