Defeat and reconstruction: Explaining the rise of civic engagement in the wake of wars (Japan, Great Britain, Finland, Sweden)

How does war affect civic engagement? Existing studies focus primarily on the outcomes of war. Defeated societies suffer falling incomes, interruption of educational opportunities, and psychological trauma, all of which should lead citizens to withdraw from public life, while in victorious countries, the reverse should promote a rise in participation.; This study challenges this conventional wisdom by drawing on new data from four countries in the wake of World War II, Japan, Britain, Finland and Sweden. Contrary to the expectations of most of the existing theories, civic engagement rose dramatically in both victorious and defeated societies of Japan, Britain, and Finland, while it grew very little in Sweden, which remained neutral.; How can this rise in civic engagement among the belligerents be explained? And what accounts for the variations in the extent of this rise?; This dissertation develops a new two-step model that focuses on (a) wartime mobilization and (b) legacies of prewar associational activities to explain how war in general, regardless of whether it ends in victory or defeat, may promote a rise in civic engagement. While war brings destruction, mobilization for war also provides opportunities for social learning that is rare in times of peace. It brings citizens into contact with new individuals, officials, and groups to perform a wide array of public tasks, through which citizens may acquire important "civic skills." They emerge from the wax willing and able to participate effectively in voluntary groups once the war is over.; The extent to which these citizens actually participate in voluntary associations after wars, however, depends on the levels of voluntary activities prior to war. Preexisting legacies of participation reduce the costs of both association-building and information-gathering, thereby increasing the opportunities for participation. The study tests this two-step model through both quantitative analysis and historical process-tracing.; The project suggests a compromise position between the state-centric and the society-centric perspectives on the evolution of civil society. Through wartime mobilization, state policies may empower and strengthen civil society in crucial ways, albeit inadvertently. The effects of those policies, however, are constrained by the preexisting social context within which the state operates.