Essentials of Comparative Politics, Chapter 7 - Political Violence PDF

Preview

Summary

summary of political violence...

Description

What is Political Violence? • the state is the cornerstone of modern politics • centralized political authority has been a part of the monopoly of violence or force over a territory • shift from private war to public war, meaning that individuals lose the freedom to use violence against one another • other states always represent a potential threat • violence persists at the domestic level ◦ persistent but manageable and do not threaten the stability and security of the state • public violence may grow so pervasive and destructive that the state loses its control • political violence - violence outside of state control that is politically motivated Why Political Violence? • institutional explanations ◦ institutions define and shape human activity ◦ emphasis on political institutions, economic institutions, or social cultural institutions ◦ institutions could contain values or norms that implicitly or explicitly encourage political violence ◦ political violence can be a logical reaction when other forms of political participation are blocked • ideational explanations ◦ ideational - having to do with ideas ◦ ideas may be institutionalized or uninstitutionalized ◦ ideas play an important role in political violence in the way they set out a worldview, diagnose a set of provlems, and justify violence ◦ political violence is much more likely to be associated with attitudes that are radical or reactionary ◦ it is not only the content of the ideas that matters, but also their relation to the domestic political status quo • individual explanations ◦ one side emphasizes psychological factors, conditions that draw individuals to violence ‣ can be a function of individual experiences or may be shaped by broader conditions in society, such as economic development or gender roles ‣ concentrate on how people may be driven to violence as an expression of desperation, desire for liberation, or social solidarity ◦ other side emphasizes political violence as a rational act ‣ carried out by those who believe it to be an effective political tool ‣ not an expression of defiance, but a strategy that is carefully wielded by those who understand its costs and potential benefits Comparing Explanations of Political Violence • institutional explanations are often quite deterministic, seeing people as shaped and directed by larger structures that they do not control ◦ stress the unique combination and role of institutions in a given case that are not easily generalized and applied elsewhere • individual explanations place their focus squarely on people; they are the primary makers of violence because they choose to be ◦ center on those personal or psychological attributes common to all humans that can lead to violence • ideational explanations are influenced by institutions but are also actively taken up and molded by individuals to justify political violence ◦ generalizing the importance of ideas while noting the distinct lessons that different ideas impart • institutional, ideational, and individual explanations work well in conjunction with each other Forms of Political Violence • forms of political violence include: assassinations, riots, rebellions, military coups, civil wars, and ethnic conflict • revolution - public seizure of the state in order to overturn the existing government and regime ◦ typically have leaders ◦ people involved are working to gain control of the state

◦ protests and uprisings are intended to pressure a leader to leave office ◦ seek to fundamentally remake the institutions of politics and often economic and societal institutions as well ◦ violence is often difficult to avoid, government will resist overthrow, and conflict can lead to fragmentation of the aftermath of revolution ◦ competition between rival states as they vie for military and economic power in the international system through trade and war ◦ weaker states often seek reform to increase their autonomy and capacity ◦ revolutionary leaders who once condemned the state quickly come to see it as a necessary tool to consolidate their victory and centralize their power to an even greater extent than before ◦ often destructive and bloody ◦ more likely to engage in interstate war ◦ the greater the violence involved in bringing down the old regime, the more likely it is that violence will continue under the new one • relative deprivation model - model that predict revolution when public expectations outpace the rate of domestic change ◦ improving economic or political conditions might help lead to revolution • terrorism - use of violence by nonstate actors against civilians to achieve a political goal ◦ concept of terrorism originally referred to state actions, not those of nonstate actors ◦ when states use violence against citizen populations, they are considered war crimes or human rights violations ◦ poverty and lack of education are commonly cited as a cause of terrorism ◦ economic inequality helps foster terrorism by contributing to a sense of relative deprivation ◦ commonly blamed on some ideology, religion, or set of values ◦ terrorists cannot be bargained with or satisfied ◦ increasing anxiety and insecurity that undermines people's sense of well-being ◦ uses violence against civilians to undermine the institutional fabric of state, society, and economy ◦ mostly unsuccessful in achieving goals ◦ successful in depressing tourism, foreign direct investment, stock markets, and other sectors of the economy ◦ eroded sense of confidence in the state ◦ governments and citizens may favor increasing state power and curtailing civil liberties in the hope that such steps will limit terrorism which can lead to a weakening of democratic institutions and civil liberties • nihilism - belief that all institutions and values are essentially meaningless and that the only redeeming value a person can embrace is violence • state-sponsored terrorism - terrorism supported directly by a state as an instrument of foreign policy • guerilla war - a conflict whereby nonstate combatants who largely abide by the rules of war target the state Terrorism and Revolution: Means and Ends • terrorism and revolution were bound together in a single process, originating from the French Revolution ◦ "terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue" - maximilien de robespierre • some revolutionaries openly embraced the name terrorist as an expression of their desire to use violence to achieve their political goals • terrorists rarely seek limited goals, such as political or economic reform, since they see the entire system as illegitimate ◦ believe that through their seemingly indiscriminate use of violence, all dominant institutions can be shattered and remade • guerilla war seeks to abide by traditional rules of war and avoids the targeting of civilians ◦ driven by political goals ◦ opponents are legitimate actors

◦ wish to be regarded as legitimate by their opponents and the international community ◦ demands do not deny the legitimacy of the other side ◦ reflects a desire to participate in or work with existing institutions rather than overthrow them • religious resurgence is tied to fundamentalism ◦ the desire to unite faith and the state • many fundamentalists believe that reestablishing God's sovereignty can be done through nonviolent engaagement in politics • modern institutions, driven by states and nations, capitalism, ideology, secularism, individualism, and material prosperity have stripped the world of greater meaning and driven people to alienation and despair ◦ emerges in societies where modern institutions are foreign in nature ◦ emerges in societies where modern institutions are under stress • modern world actively marginalizes, humiliates, and denigrates the views of religious believers and seeks to exterminate the believers outright ◦ modernity is the enemy ◦ rationalize violence against civilians because they see the conflict not in terms of civilians v. combatants, but in term s of the guilty v. the innocent ◦ those who not stand on the side of righteousness are by definition on the side of evil • religion as a source of political violence is often connected to messianic, apocalyptic, and utopian beliefs ◦ although modernity has gained the upper hand, the role of the righteous is to usher in or restore the sovereignty of God on earth ◦ violence is not only acceptable, but a form of ritual (martyrdom or sacrifice of others) • religious groups that resort to violence represent an extreme form of fundamentalism ◦ break away from the mainstream faith and other fundamentalists Countering Political Violence • democracies allow for more political participation, making revolution and terrorism less likely in those countries • democracies co-opt and diffuse the motivations necessary for serious organized or mass violence against the state and civilians • democratic states and their citizens will often favor limiting certain ccivil liberties and increasing state autonomy and capacity in order to bring an end to political violence ◦ could seriously threaten to erode individual rights and democracy, creating a surveillance state •...