Studies of group-based conflict typically focus on the group as the unit of analysis. But group attributes often mask individual-level variation. Why do some individuals within groups identify more strongly with the group, feel greater hostility toward out-groups, and participate in conflict more than others?

We argue that a key ingredient in explaining who within a group feels more aggrieved, more attached, and more hostile to others is the legacy of violence. Violence itself creates and amplifies group identities that then persist across generations within families. It also forges a sense of victimhood, an identity that implies moral status and out-group threat. We test this argument using multigenerational surveys we fielded in Guatemala and Cambodia in 2017 and 2018.

We find that individuals whose ancestors were exposed to more violence during prior periods of conflict identify more strongly with their group, identify as victims, and distrust the rival out-group. We find that the effect of these identities on political participation depends on the political context, both during and after the conflict, and how it shapes blame attribution and the meaning of political participation.

Virtual to Public. Only those with an active Stanford ID with access to E008 in Encina Hall may attend in person.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

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This event is co-sponsored by CDDRL and the Center for Latin American Studies.

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Robert G. Wesson Lecture Series in International Relations Theory and Practice

As a Venezuelan, Leopoldo López lived through the gradual deterioration of what was once a regional reference for democracy into an authoritarian regime that has created the worst humanitarian and migration crisis in the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela is a clear example of how democracy could lose the battle against autocracy.

Unfortunately, the fight for freedom is no longer an issue to be solved only among Venezuelans. In fact, our conflict has become, like many others around the world, part of the global conflict between autocracy and democracy.

Autocracy in its different forms is spreading and constitutes a diverse but articulated movement around the world. To face this situation, new forms of organizations and democratic leadership must be promoted and empowered as an effective way to revert this new wave of autocracies. It is essential to create a synergy between effective local leadership, a comprehensive narrative and the use of new technologies that set up a range of possibilities to promote freedom.

The Wesson Lectureship was established at Stanford by the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies in 1989. It provides support for a public address at the university by a prominent scholar or practicing professional in the field of international relations. The series is made possible by a gift from the late Robert G. Wesson, a scholar of international affairs, prolific author, and senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

In establishing the series, Dr. Wesson stated his hope that the lectures would stimulate increased commitment to the study of international relations in a context that would enable students to understand the importance of developing practical policies within a theoretical and analytical framework. Previous Wesson Lecturers have included such distinguished speakers as McGeorge Bundy, Willi DeClerq, Condoleezza Rice, Mikhail Gorbachev, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and Mary Robinson.
 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

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López received a Bachelor's degree cum laude in sociology and economics from Kenyon College, and a Master´s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was awarded a honoris causa doctorate in Law from Kenyon College in 2007.

Leopoldo López was elected mayor of the municipality of Chacao in Caracas in 2000 and he finished his second term with a 92% approval rate. He also won third place at the World Mayor Awards and the 2007 and 2008 “Premio Transparencia”, awarded by Transparency International.

In 2014 he was unjustly detained by the Maduro regime and was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment. He spent four years in a military prison, a year and a half in house arrest and another year and a half in the Spanish embassy in Caracas under political asylum. He was recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience. Also, in 2015 his detention was declared arbitrary by the UN.

In October 2020, López escaped from Venezuela through Colombia to join his family in Spain. It was the first time in seven years that he was able to be with his family in freedom. In his exile, López continues his fight for Venezuela´s democracy and freedom.

López has received several international awards for his fight for democracy and freedom in Venezuela. Among them, he was honored with the 2014 Harvard alumni achievement award, the NED´S 2013 Democracy Award, the 2016 Geneva Summit Courage Award and the 2017 Sakharov Prize for Freedom and Thought.

About the Session: How do gangs compete for extortion? Using detailed data on individual extortion payments to gangs and sales from a leading wholesale distributor of consumer goods and pharmaceuticals in El Salvador, we document evidence on the determinants of extortion payments, firm responses to extortion, and effects on consumers. We exploit a 2016 non-aggression pact between gangs to examine how collusion affects extortion in areas where gangs previously competed. While the non-aggression pact led to a large reduction in violence, we find that it increased extortion by 15% to 20%. Much of the increase in extortion was passed-through to retailers and consumers: we find a large increase in prices for pharmaceutical drugs and a corresponding increase in hospital visits for chronic illnesses. The results shed light on how extortion rates are set and point to an unintended consequence of policies that reduce competition between criminal organizations.

About the Speaker: Carlos Schmidt-Padilla received his PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a Research Associate at the Center on the Politics of Development. Since September 2021, Carlos has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford Impact Labs (SIL), affiliated with PovGov at CDDRL. Broadly, his research interests encompass the political economy of development of Latin America and of sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, he studies questions concerning crime, human capital, immigration, and policing in developing countries. Carlos is from San Salvador, El Salvador.

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Sponsored by: Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law and the Center for Latin American Studies

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About the Speakers:

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Laura Alonso has an extensive and unique cross-sector career in government, Congress and the NGO sector for almost two decades. She was the head of the Anticorruption Office (AO) in Argentina for four years. Member of Congress for six and Executive Director and program manager of the chapter of Transparency International in Argentina for eight years. Publicly acknowledged as a democracy activist and a fierce advocator for institutional reforms, Laura is a profound analyst of Argentina and Latin American politics and institutions. 

After her four-years term leading the anticorruption and integrity policy, Argentina reached its highest assessment and position in the Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International in 2020.

She promoted the enactment of the corporate liability legislation, asset recovery regulations and the whistleblower act. She has been a leader of the ethics and compliance revolution in private and State-owned enterprises in Argentina. She promoted the presidential decrees that regulated gift policy, the prevention of conflicts of interest in public procurement and the network of ethics focal points throughout the public sector. Under her leadership the AO has developed new courses and tools to train officials. She also promoted new procedures to control the assets and interests of +55 thousand officials and produced historic decisions about the creation of the first presidential trust and divestment.  
  
The AO opened more than 2,000 investigations and it also participated in historic corruption investigations against former Presidents and more than 300 high-rank officials and businessmen. A former Vicepresident, a super powerful Infrastructure minister and other officials were convicted.  
  
She also co-chaired the Anticorruption Working Group of G20 in 2018 producing and negotiating the documents on transparency and integrity in State Owned Enterprises and on integrity in the public sector that were endorsed by G20 Leaders. She was the chief of delegation at the OECD Bribery Working Group and the Senior Public Integrity Officials Group, the OAS and the G20. She promoted Argentina´s access into the the EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative). 

As a member of Congress (2009-2015), she promoted the access to public information law, political and campaign funding reform and open government policies. She also drafted legislation about judicial and criminal reforms, electoral issues and gender parity. 

Laura is a British Chevening Scholar, an Eisenhower Fellow and a Draper Hills Fellow. She was an US International Visitor in 1995 and 1998. She was selected Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2012 and received an award by Vital Voices Global Partnership in 2008 for her public leadership. 
  
Laura has been a speaker at the OECD, IMF, CAF, World Bank, IADB, OAS, the Aspen Ideas Festival, Women in the World, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Harvard, Stanford and Columbia universities, the B20, the NYC Bar Association, among others. 

She is a political scientist from the University of Buenos Aires and holds a master degree on public administration and public policy from the London School of Economics. 

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Iván Velásquez Gómez was born in Medellín, Colombia.  He studied law at the University of Antioquia, Medellín, and received his law degree in 1983.

After serving as an independent lawyer, he was appointed Deputy Prosecutor of the Department of Antioquia between 1991 and 1994, during which he conducted administrative investigations against civil servants, including members of law enforcement for activities related to torture, extrajudicial executions and abuses against the civilian population.

On October 1997, he was appointed Regional Director of Public Prosecutions in Medellin (1997 - 1999), which put him, along with a brave team of prosecutors and investigators, in charge of conducting investigations against various types of criminal structures, especially paramilitaries and drug traffickers.

He later became an Auxiliary Judge of the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia in May of 2000. As such, he led the Commission of Investigative Support of the Criminal Chamber, from the second half of 2006 to August 2012, where he was in charge of investigating the relations between members of the Colombian Congress and paramilitary groups. As a result of these investigations, about 70 congressmen were convicted of criminal conspiracy.

After resigning on September 30, 2012, he practiced law between October 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013.

On October 1, 2013, he was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) by the Secretary General of the United Nations and led the commission until its end on September 3, 2019. At the request of the Secretary General of the United Nations, he assumed his charges from outside of Guatemala beginning on September 3, 2018, since the Guatemalan president had prohibited his entry into the country and tried to expulse him in August 2017, declaring him a persona non grata.

CICIG was an international organization in charge of supporting the Guatemalan Attorney General's Office in the investigations of powerful criminal structures known in that country as illegal groups and clandestine security apparatus (CIACS). As a result of these investigations, under the direction of the commissioner, dozens of the highest state officials (including former presidents, ministers, congressmen and judges of the Supreme Court of Justice) and numerous businessmen were prosecuted for corruption-related crimes and illegal electoral financing. Other people have been prosecuted for extrajudicial executions, violent dispossession of land and money laundering.

He has also received many international accolades:

In 2011, the International Bar Association (IBA) presented him with the World Human Rights Award.

In 2012, the Association of German Judges awarded him for his commitment to the fight against impunity and respect for fundamental rights.

In 2016, the prestigious Americas Quarterly magazine distinguished him as one of the top 5 “corruption-hunters” in Latin America.

In 2018, he was awarded the 2018 WOLA Human Rights Awards and Right Livelihood, known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, for "his innovative work in exposing the abuse of power and prosecuting corruption, thus rebuilding people's trust in public institutions" .

In 2019, Berkeley Journal of International Law awarded him the Stefan A. Riesenfeld award "for his courageous commitment and leadership in the fight against corruption".

Discussants:

Francis Fukuyama, Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law

Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj, Tinker Visiting Professor