Local elections can quietly reshape post‑conflict peace: This study shows how Mozambique’s municipal elections improve representation and strengthen citizens’ sense of belonging, even though authoritarian constraints sharply limit their impact. The findings highlight why these often overlooked institutions matter for peacebuilding and post-conflict governance.
This EDP Wire is a summary of the article from the Journal Civil Wars, where the original article was published. Find the Original here.
Research on the link between elections and peace has almost exclusively focused on national elections and whether they reduce or increase the risk of renewed violence. Yet, local elections have specific characteristics that may yield different effects on societal dynamics. This raises the question: What role do local elections play for peace after civil war?
In her newly published article, Karina Mross examines this question through the case of Mozambique, a country that emerged from a 16-year civil war in 1992 and has since conducted regular elections at the national and local level. Over that period, it has grappled with persistent political tensions, growing authoritarianism, and recurring conflict.
Drawing on 33 semi-structured interviews with representatives of civil society, political parties, government institutions, and international organizations, the article investigates how municipal elections affect societal peace. Rather than focusing only on violent conflict, the study looks at broader societal dynamics, particularly social cohesion and relations between citizens, political actors, and the state.
The analyses show that local elections had a positive, but limited, effect on societal peace. The strongest effects emerged through improved state–society relations. Municipal elections helped create more inclusive political representation, gave opposition parties some access to political office, and fostered a greater sense of participation, empowerment, and belonging among citizens.
More specifically, the findings indicate:
🔹 Representation matters.
Even in an electoral autocracy, local elections encouraged political parties to become more attentive to local constituencies and regional diversity. In Mozambique, this contributed to the inclusion of actors and regions that had previously felt marginalized from national politics.
🔹 Local elections can help accommodate opposition actors.
Municipal governments became one of the few arenas in which opposition parties could gain political power. This provided a limited but important mechanism for reducing feelings of exclusion in a highly centralized political system.
🔹 Yet institutional context matters enormously.
The positive effects remained well below their potential because of centralized party structures, weak local capacities, limited financial resources, and the broader authoritarian political environment. Local governments often lacked the autonomy and resources needed to respond effectively to citizens‘ demands.
🔹 Some expected effects did not materialize.
The research finds little evidence that local elections improved cooperation between political parties. At the same time, however, local electoral competition did not deepen social divisions or intensify ethnic tensions to the extent some theories would predict.
Overall, the study suggests that local elections can contribute to peacebuilding by strengthening inclusion, representation, and citizens‘ sense of belonging. However, they are not a substitute for broader democratic reforms and cannot compensate for exclusionary national political structures.
The findings are particularly relevant for ongoing debates about post-conflict governance, decentralization, election sequencing, and international support for peacebuilding. While local elections are often treated as „second-order“ institutions, they can have important consequences for how citizens experience the state and whether political competition is channelled through peaceful means.
Mozambique’s recent post-election crisis, which caused sustained and violent mass protests, underscores the relevance of the findings. The largest protest wave in recent history highlighted both the persistence of political exclusion as a driver of conflict and the limits of local elections in compensating for a lack of meaningful democratic competition at the national level.
The findings are particularly relevant in light of Mozambique’s recent post-election crisis, which caused sustained and violent mass protests. The sustained and violent mass protests following the disputed 2024 presidential election highlight both the persistence of political exclusion as a driver of conflict and the limits of local elections in compensating for a lack of meaningful democratic competition at the national level.
Interested in finding out more? Find the full article here.