Roving Rulers: How Armed Groups Govern in the Absence of Territorial Control

• In Event: Territory, Boundaries, and Governance

Abstract

The literature on rebel governance has typically assumed that territorial control is a necessary condition for rebel groups to perform governance functions in a given area. Yet, cases as diverse as the PKK in southeastern Turkey, the IRA in Northern Ireland, and Hamas in the West Bank reflect instances of armed groups performing basic governance functions absent territorial control. To account for this puzzle, we propose that some armed groups develop what we deem ‘authoritative control’ over a population, which allows them to perform select governance functions without having secured territorial control. We define authoritative control as the deployment of symbolic power by a non-state armed group in order to secure legitimacy over a target population within or outside of the territory that the group controls. Symbolic power encompasses but is not limited to the display of moral authority, the mimicking of state behavior, indoctrination, and appeals to and the reinvention of common histories or group myths. Further, we argue that the concepts of governance and territorial control are semantically distinct, but have thus far been conflated in the literature on non-state armed group governance. Therefore, we clarify the difference between the two concepts, introduce the concept of authoritative control, and provide a theory of governance in conditions where armed groups cannot claim to control territory. These conceptual and empirical distinctions are significant to the study of armed group governance because they imply that important cases have been omitted from investigation, limiting our understanding and conclusions about the phenomenon’s nature, causes, and consequences. We examine three case vignettes from different world regions to illustrate our arguments and theory.

Authors

• Hannah Early Bagdanov, University of Notre Dame

• Joséphine Lechartre, University of Notre Dame