Thursday, February 13th, 2020 Buffers Against Famine: Social Ties and the Effects of Collectivization in Khmer Rouge Cambodia

Description

This paper addresses the causes of non-execution deaths during the Cambodian Genocide. Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979) had one of the highest mortality rates of any communist revolution, with the deaths of approximately one quarter of the population: half from direct violence and the other half from indirect means, in particular starvation. What explains the variation in indirect deaths, those that resulted from means other than execution, during this period of mass violence? I argue that it was not just control over agricultural production that led to high rates of starvation deaths, but the policies of social control associated with the collectivization process that exacerbated the problems of famine. The set of policies surrounding the family, including forced marriages and the separation of family units, which I call social collectivization, undermined traditional buffers against famine and decreased the likelihood of survival. The decision to include social components was an ideological one, but those it targeted reflect a strategic logic shaped by economic and security interests. I find that collectivization of economic activities also affected the likelihood of survival; but the social elements tipped the balance toward disaster. High levels of social control targeted preexisting social network and communal ties, fracturing those networks that would ordinarily have acted as a buffer against poor policy or economic downturns in a community. As a result, individuals were more vulnerable to the effects of overwork and over-requisitioned rice, making deaths from indirect means—starvation and exhaustion in particular—more likely. Through this study, I demonstrate the consequences of governing a revolutionary state for the indirect victims of mass violence.

Rachel Jacobs is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Dickinson College. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2019. Her research centers on questions of survival during periods of mass violence. More broadly, she researches issues of political violence, gender and conflict, human rights, and the long-term consequences of conflict.