Rebel Legacies and Gang Presence in Postwar El Salvador: The Long-Term Effects of Wartime Institutions on Local Criminal Order.

Why do gangs thrive in some communities but not in others with similar conditions? This paper examines subnational variation in gang presence across El Salvador and argues that participatory rebel governance during the civil war explains these differences. Using original georeferenced data on wartime territorial control by FMLN guerrilla factions and a national survey, I show that communities exposed to rebel-imposed participatory institutions developed higher levels of collective efficacy. These areas now exhibit significantly lower gang presence. The findings suggest that wartime experiences of civic participation fostered durable local institutions capable of resisting criminal organizations even decades after the conflict. The study contributes to debates on criminal violence, rebel legacies, and collective action by demonstrating how wartime governance encourages long-term social resilience and shapes present-day criminal order. More broadly, it shows how participatory political institutions built during conflict can develop long-term protective capacity, offering insights for post-conflict statebuilding and crime prevention in fragile settings. It also challenges traditional views that focus only on poverty or state weakness, emphasizing instead the importance of historical differences in community capacity for self-organization.