What is the impact of civil war on social networks? How does violence affect trust? This paper explores the legacy of civil war by analysing the impact of the Ugandan armed conflict on social capital. Its findings indicate that both self-reported trust and associational membership decreased substantially during the conflict in the affected districts. However, it also finds suggestive evidence of a strong recovery process once the violence has ended.
The research analysed the impact of armed conflict in Uganda, making use of two nationwide Afrobarometer surveys (2000 and 2005). These bracket a peak in violence of more than 250 battle days in a year in the affected area, and also capture the transition from violence to peace in the west in the aftermath of ADF violence. Each survey includes information on approximately 2,400 individuals of voting age. The samples are nationally representative and geographically stratified across 33 districts in 4 regions, including both urban and rural areas.
The findings indicate that social capital decreases amidst violence. Both the level of trust and participation in religious and community associations decreased during the transition from relative peace to violence. However, the study also found that social capital strongly increased in the post-conflict phase.
How do these findings fit with the literature? The evidence from existing studies balances between a positive and a negative civil war impact on social capital. So does this study, which suggests that much may depend on the time span between the measurement of social capital and the end of violence.
