POLITICS & VIOLENCE

F O R C E , R E S I S TA N C E ,

R E B E L L I O N , A N D T E R R O R .

A civilian flees from tear gas and gunfire during the October 2, 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City. More

than 1300 people were arrested, and approximately 300 to 400 people were killed. The Tlatelolco Massacre is

often understood as a part of la Guerra Sucia (“Dirty War”) in Mexico.

W H Y V I O L E N C E ?T H I S I S M O R E C O M P L I C AT E D T H A N W E

L I K E TO T H I N K .

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do

violence on their behalf.

George Orwell

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil

it does is permanent.

Mahatma Gandhi

Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the gun down.

Malcolm X

Nobody can think and hit someone at the same time.

Susan Sontag

Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the

truth.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

WHAT DO WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY:

Term Working Definition

Violence

Force

Agency

• Are FORCE and VIOLENCE the same thing?

• Do FORCE andVIOLENCE require physical contact?

R E A S O N A N D V I O L E N C EW H Y U S E F O R C E ? W H E N I S V I O L E N C E

P O L I T I C A L ?

THE STATE AND VIOLENCE• Remember Weber?

– The state = legitimate monopoly on violence

• Individuals lose the freedom to use violence against each other and turn

that right over to the state in exchange for security (a protection

racket?)

• HOWEVER. State monopoly on violence isn’t perfect or

complete.

– Threat from external states

– Domestic, internal violence between individuals → murder,

assault, other violent crimes

• Usually manageable

• BUT if a state lacks autonomy and/or capacity → CAN weaken the state,

lead to its collapse

WHAT CONSTITUTES POLITICAL VIOLENCE?• Political violence = politically motivated violence outside

of state control

– Phenomenon which operates OUTSIDE of state sovereignty

• Not war or crime → working to achieve a political goal through use of force

• Broader category of “contentious politics?”

– Includes: revolutions, civil war, riots, strikes, AND peaceful protest

movements

WHAT MAKES PEOPLE USE VIOLENCE TO EXPRESS POLITICAL GOALS?

Institutional Explanations

Ideational Explanations

Individual Explanations

POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND INSTITUTIONS• Political, economic, societal institutions as ESSENTIAL to political

violence → structuralist argument

– E.g., capitalism drives violence, religion X drives violence, the state drives

violence

• Institutions could be the root of political violence because:

– Contains norms and values which encourage political violence →

certain electoral systems?

• Institutional readings of political violence tend to look for a single

root cause

– Implied presumption: altering the institutional structure would

eliminate violence

“I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good

thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms

in the physical.”

Thomas Jefferson, 1787

POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND IDEATION• Focuses more on rationale than fixed organizations and patterns

• Ideation = ideas and concepts

– May be institutionalized → political philosophy, religious belief

– May be uninstitutionalized → outside of organizational structure

• Ideas → worldview, diagnosis of problems, potential solutions, and path

to said solutions

• Political violence is more likely to be associated with political

attitudes which are radical or reactionary

– Driven by worldviews which view the current framework as corrupt and

beyond redemption, thus justifying the use of violence

Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and

inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is

less a distinct principle than a natural

consequence of the general principle of

democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of

the country.

Maximilien Robespierre, On the Principles of

Political Morality