Explaining Militancy among Minorities

• In Event: Rebel and Government Institutions in Civil War

Abstract

When does militancy arise among minorities? Arguing that existing frameworks fall short in explaining the variation, this paper presents an understudied but relevant dynamic and develops a formal model to illustrate the political conditions influencing minority militant mobilization. Minorities face the threat of indiscriminate retaliation if violent transgressions are committed by someone from their community. Insufficient protection from this threat incentivizes minority members to police their group in order to prevent militancy from emerging within their community. The strategic tensions in this protection-group policing dynamic occur within the minority group and between the minority group and the state. I thus develop a formal model that studies how the interaction between state capacity and state willingness influences minority militant mobilization. The model can account for the variation in the types of militancy and also counterintuitively demonstrates how low-capacity states can provide a less conducive environment for minority-linked militancy than high-capacity states.

Author

• Saurabh Pant, Fondation JJL-IAST