Dehn, JosefineJosefineDehn2026-08-112026-08-112026https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/116588Dissertation, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 2026This dissertation is concerned with the influence of intrastate warfare on public social policy. Focusing on Peru and the war period, I pose two main research questions: What changes to public social policy occurred during the civil war in Peru? What impact did intrastate warfare have on the development of public social policy during the war? In order to address these research questions, I draw on common theoretical approaches in comparative welfare research to propose different potential causal mechanisms linking intrastate war to the social policy and to derive theoretically supported case-specific expectations for Peru. I seek initial empirical evidence, in order to provide a first impetus for future theory-driven research. Adopting a qualitative, case-based research approach, I conduct a within-case analysis of Peru between 1980 and 2000, using process tracing in a pragmatic way as both a structuring logic and an analytical tool. I rely on various primary documents, including legislation and government publications, and secondary literature on the civil war and social policy in Peru, collected from archives and libraries in Peru and Germany and through desk-based research. The findings show that the intrastate war affected social policy in Peru in various ways, resulting in heterogeneous, segmented outcomes. Generally, a few war-relevant groups were prioritised, including the police and military, civil servants, and state-recognised peasant self-defence groups. These groups benefited from an expansion of social protection during the war, more generous and exclusive benefits, and, in some cases, from an earlier policy adoption. By contrast, social policy changes for the majority of the civilian population were later, remained insufficient compared to war-caused suffering, and, in some cases, led to retrenchment. The war acted as a direct stimulus for policy change by creating social needs that would not otherwise have emerged. However, most of the war’s impacts on social policy were indirect, stemming from its influence on the various explanatory factors commonly studied in comparative welfare research. I found evidence of these influences with regard to institutions, political parties, power resources, political behaviour and attitudes, and external factors. This dissertation contributes to existing comparative welfare literature in several ways. By incorporating complementary insights from conflict literature, the thesis bridges a gap between these two currently separate fields of social sciences literature. My research demonstrates that intrastate warfare is another theoretical driver, particularly in non-Western contexts, that links both directly and indirectly to social policy. The thesis offers the first attempt to map these influences, their complex, non-linear interactions, and the resulting social policy outcomes in a typical case.The dissertation also enhances the limited and fragmented empirical knowledge of social protection in Peru, an understudied Latin American country.engSocial policyPeruintrastate war320doctoralthesisurn:nbn:de:bvb:473-irb-116588x