Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:38:00.041Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Grievances and Opportunities: Religious Violence across Political Regimes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2014

David Muchlinski
David Muchlinski*
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska, Omaha
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: David Muchlinski, Department of Political Science, University of Nebraska, Omaha, 6001 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE 68182. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Studies of religious violence have established that when states restrict religious freedom, the probability of religious violence increases. Conventional wisdom holds that religious violence is primarily a result of religious grievances. When religious groups are denied religious freedom, they seek to revise the status quo in their favor though the use of violence. This study challenges this narrative. It finds, rather than being caused only by grievances, religious violence is also fueled by moments of opportunity. Utilizing cross-national data for the years 2008 and 2001–2005, it is found that religious violence occurs most frequently in anocratic regimes marked by weak and decaying state institutions. Hence, the current narrative is incomplete. Studies analyzing religious violence need to consider how various regimes provide or stifle the opportunity for religious actors to engage in violence as well as how those regimes fuel religious violence through restricting religious freedom and increasing religious grievances.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 684 - 705
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bellin, Eva. 2004. “The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective.” Comparative Politics 36: 139–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cederman, Lars-Erik, Hug, Simon, and Krebs, Lutz. 2010. “Democratization and civil war: Empirical evidence.” Journal of Peace Research 47: 377–394.Google Scholar
Cederman, Lars-Erik, Wimmer, Andreas, and Min, Brian. 2010. “Why do Ethnic Groups Rebel?: New data and analysis.” World Politics 62: 87–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cederman, Lars-Erik, Weidmann, Nils B., and Gleditsch, Kristian. 2011. “Horizontal inequalities and Ethnonationalist Civil War: A Global Comparison.” American Political Science Review 105: 478–495.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, Paul, and Hoeffler, Anke. 2004. “Greed and Grievance in Civil War.” Oxford Economic Papers, 56: 563–595.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul, Hoeffler, Anke, and Rohner, Dominic. 2009. “Beyond Greed and Grievance: Feasability and Civil War.” Oxford Economic Papers 61: 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Soysa, Indra, and Nordas, Ragnhild. 2007. “Islam's Bloody Innards? Religion and Political Terror, 1980–2000.” International Studies Quarterly 51: 927–943.Google Scholar
Fearon, James, and Laitin, David. 2003. “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.” American Political Science Review 97: 75–90.Google Scholar
Finke, Roger, and Martin, Robert. 2012. Religious Freedom and Conflict: A Review of the Evidence. Washington, DC: USAID Conflict Management and Mitigation Office.Google Scholar
Finke, Roger. 1997. “The Consequences of Religious Competition: Supply-side Explanations for Religious Change.” In Rational Choice Theory and Religion, ed. Young, L.A. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Finke, Rogern, and Harris, J.. 2012. “Wars and Rumors of Wars: Explaining Religiously Motivated Violence.” Religion, Politics, Society, and the State. 53–71. www.thearda.com (Accessed on xxx xx, xxxx).Google Scholar
Fox, John, and Sandler, Shmuel. 2003. “Regime Types and Discrimination against Ethnoreligious Minorities: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Autocracy-Democracy Continuum.” Political Studies 51: 469–489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, John, James, Patrick, and Li, Yitan. 2009. “State religion and discrimination against ethnic minorities.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 15: 189–210.Google Scholar
Fox, Sean, and Hoelsche, Kristian. 2012. “Political order, Development and Social Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 49: 431–444.Google Scholar
Garcia-Montalvo, Joes, and Reynal-Querol, Marta. 2004. “Ethnic Polarization, Potential Conflict, and Civil Wars.” The American Economic Review 95: 796–816.Google Scholar
Grim, Brian, and Finke, Roger. 2006. “International Religion Indexes: Government Regulation, Government Favoritism, and Social Regulation of Religion.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 2: 1–40.Google Scholar
Grim, Brian, and Finke, Roger. 2007. “Religious Persecution in Cross-National Context: Clashing Civilizations or Regulated Religious Economies?” American Sociological Review 72: 633–658.Google Scholar
Grim, Brian, and Finke, Roger. 2011. The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the 21st Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Grim, Brian. 2012. “Religion, Law and Social Conflict in the 21st Century: Findings from Sociological Research.” Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 1: 249–271.Google Scholar
Gurr, Ted, and Lichbach, Mark. 1986. “Forecasting Internal Conflict: Competitive Evaluation of Empirical Theories” Comparative Political Studies 19: 3–38.Google Scholar
Gurr, Ted, and Moore, Will. 1997. “Ethnopolitical Rebellion: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the 1980s with Risk Assessments for the 1990s.” American Journal of Political Science 41: 1079–1103.Google Scholar
Gurr, Ted. 1993. “Why Minorities Rebel: A Global Analysis of Communal Mobilization And Conflict Since 1945.” International Political Science Review 4: 161–201.Google Scholar
Hegre, Havard, Ellingsen, Tanja, Gates, Scott, and Peter Gleditsch, Nils. 2001. “Towards a Democratic Civil Peace? Democracy, Political Change, and Civil War, 1816–1992.” The American Political Science Review 95: 33–48.Google Scholar
Hegre, Havard, and Sambanis, Nicholas. 2006. “Sensitivity Analysis of Empirical Results on Civil War Onset.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 50: 508–535.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel. 1968. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel. 1993. “The clash of civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72: 22–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, Monty, Jaggers, Keith, and Gurr, Ted. 2008. Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2011. Vienna, VA: Center for Systemic Peace.Google Scholar
Østby, Gudrun. 2008. “Polarization, Horizontal Inequalities and Violent Civil Conflict.” Journal of Peace Research, 45: 143–162.Google Scholar
Petersen, Roger. 2002. Understanding Ethnic Violnece: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Raleigh, Clionadh, and Hegre, Havard. 2009. “Population Size, Concentration, and Civil War. A Geographically Disaggregated Analysis.” Political Geography 28: 224–238.Google Scholar
Sambanis, Nicholas. 2001. “Do Ethnic and Nonethnic Wars Have the Same Causes? A Theoretical and Empirical Inquiry (Part 1).” Journal of Conflict Resolution 45: 259–282.Google Scholar
Saxton, Gregory. 2005. “Repression, Grievances, Mobilization, And Rebellion: A New Test of Gurr's Model of Ethnopolitical Rebellion” International Interactions 31: 87–116.Google Scholar
Weinstein, Jeremy 2007. Inside Rebellion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar