I have seen several new papers on the Rwanda genocide in the past few days. This one (McDoom, February 2013) is an intersting one:
Abstract: Although popularly perceived as a positive force, social capital may also produce socially undesirable outcomes. Drawing on Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, this article shows that participation in its violence was partly determined by the features of individuals’ social networks. Perpetrators possessed larger networks in general and more connections to other perpetrators in particular. The quality as well as quantity of connections also mattered. Strong ties generally, and kinship and neighborly ties specifically, were strong predictors of participation. In contrast, possession of countervailing ties to nonparticipants was not significant. In explaining these findings, I suggest participants’ networks fulfilled functions of information diffusion, social influence, and behavioral regulation. The findings point to the importance of social structure and suggest that relational data should complement individual attribute data in predicting participation in collective violence.
HT: Fabio Sabatini.
Rwanda, a post-conflict country in the Great Lakes Region of East Central Africa, has made a remarkable recovery from the devastating genocide it experienced in 1994 and has entered on a path of sustainable development. It remains, however, one of the poorest countries in the world and is heavily aid dependent. Most of the population are dependent on subsistence agriculture for survival and over 70% live on less than one US dollar a day. Levels of satisfaction with life in general are not surprisingly relatively low but levels of happiness are much higher. Health influences satisfaction and happiness with the former also influenced by economic circumstances, freedom of choice and control and confidence in civil society. Other factors influencing happiness are trust in family and confidence in government. Men are happier than women but there are no gender differences in satisfaction.
The title of the paper is "Happiness in a Post-conflict Society: Rwanda" by Abbott and Wallace (Happiness Across Cultures, 2012).
After 1994, the Rwandans had to start virtually from scratch, deeply scarred and ashamed of their immediate past. They have done surprisingly, almost shockingly, well—indeed, well enough to justify even a casual comparison with Singapore.
That is from this very interesting article by Dalibor Rohac.
Addendum: This is Rwanda Human Development Index -- it is catching up with the African average. This is Rwanda profile in the World Bank webpage.
