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Rebel constituencies and rebel violence against civilians in civil conflicts
[journal article]
Abstract This article examines how the civilian constituencies of rebel groups affect their use of violence
against civilians. While past research has acknowledged the importance of rebel constituencies,
they are primarily seen as only having an indirect effect on rebel behavior. In this study, I conceptua... view more
This article examines how the civilian constituencies of rebel groups affect their use of violence
against civilians. While past research has acknowledged the importance of rebel constituencies,
they are primarily seen as only having an indirect effect on rebel behavior. In this study, I conceptualize
rebel constituencies as central political opportunity structures for rebel groups providing
incentives and imposing restraints on their use of strategic violence and the violent behavior of
individual rebel fighters. In particular, I hypothesize that a constituency overlap between rebels
and the government of a state acts as a restraint making large-scale violence against civilians less
likely. In contrast, high levels of constituency fractionalization and polarization induce strategic violence
and predatory behavior, increasing the chances of large-scale civilian victimization. I conduct
a statistical analysis of rebel one-sided violence in sub-Saharan Africa using newly collected data
on rebel constituencies to test these hypotheses. The results only provide limited empirical support
for the hypothesized relationship between constituency overlap and rebel violence against
civilians. There is clear empirical evidence, however, that heavily fractionalized and polarized rebel
constituencies are associated with higher levels of violence against civilians.... view less
Keywords
institutional factors; voting; legitimation; social actor; propensity to violence; conflict situation; statistical analysis; election; victimization; structural violence; disposition to conflict; guarantee of domination; Africa South of the Sahara; civilian population
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Social Problems
Free Keywords
Civil conflict; rebel groups; rebel constituencies; violence against civilians
Document language
English
Publication Year
2015
Page/Pages
p. 1-25
Journal
Conflict Management and Peace Science (2015)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/0738894215570428
ISSN
1549-9219
Status
Postprint; peer reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications
With the permission of the rights owner, this publication is under open access due to a (DFG-/German Research Foundation-funded) national or Alliance license.