Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-10T17:27:45.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Practical Ideology in Militant Organizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2020

Sarah E. Parkinson Open the ORCID record for Sarah E. Parkinson [Opens in a new window]
Get access

Abstract

Ideology shapes militant recruitment, organization, and conflict behavior. Existing research assumes doctrinal consistency, top-down socialization of adherents, and clear links between formal ideology and political action. But it has long been recognized that ideological commitments do not flow unaltered from overarching cleavages or elite narratives; they are uneven, contingent, fraught with tension, and often ambivalent. What work does ideology do in militant groups if it is not deeply studied, internalized, or sincerely believed? How can scholars explain collective commitment, affinity, and behavioral outcomes among militants who clearly associate themselves with a group, but who may not consistently (or ever) be true believers or committed ideologues? I argue that practical ideologies—sets of quotidian principles, ideas, and social heuristics that reflect relational worldviews rather than specific published political doctrines, positions, platforms, or plans—play a key role in militant socialization through everyday practices. Ethnographic evidence gained from fieldwork among Palestinians in Lebanon demonstrates how militants and affiliates render ideas about ideological closeness and distance accessible through emotional, intellectual, and moral appeals. This approach reaffirms the role of discourse and narrative in creating informal mechanisms of militant socialization without expressly invoking formal doctrine.

Keywords

civil warethnographygossipideologyinsurgencyMiddle Eastnonstate actorsrebel organizationsrumor
Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 52 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 2020

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

Althusser, Louis. [1971] 2001. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. Trans. Ben Brewster. New York, N.Y.: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Arjona, Ana. 2014. “Wartime Institutions: A Research Agenda.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 58, no. 8: 1360-89. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002714547904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arjona, Ana. 2016. Rebelocracy: Social Order in the Colombian Civil War. Cambridge, UK, and New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Arjona, Ana, Kasfir, Nelson, and Mampilly, Zachariah, eds. 2015. Rebel Governance in Civil War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asharq al-Awsat. 2008. “Politics and Shoes.” December 23. At https://eng-archive.aawsat.com/theaawsat/features/politics-and-shoes, accessed December 30, 2013.Google Scholar
Bakke, Kristin M., Kathleen Gallagher, Cunningham, and Seymour, Lee J. M.. 2012. “A Plague of Initials: Fragmentation, Cohesion, and Infighting in Civil Wars.” Perspectives on Politics 10, no. 2: 265-83. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592712000667.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bateson, Regina. 2017. “The Socialization of Civilians and Militia Members: Evidence from Guatemala.” Journal of Peace Research 54, no. 5: 634-47. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343317721812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayard, de Volo, Lorraine, and Edward Schatz. 2004. “From the Inside Out: Ethnographic Methods in Political Research.” PS: Political Science & Politics 37, no. 2: 267-71. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096504004214.Google Scholar
Behrouzan, Orkideh. 2016. Prozak Diaries: Psychiatry and Generational Memory in Iran. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben, Shitrit, Lihi. 2016. Righteous Transgressions: Women’s Activism on the Israeli and Palestinian Religious Right. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Besnier, Niko. 2009. Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Trans. Nice, Richard. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brehm, Hollie Nyseth. 2015. “State Context and Exclusionary Ideologies.” American Behavioral Scientist 60, no. 2: 131-49. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764215607579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooke, Steven. 2019. Winning Hearts and Votes: Social Services and the Islamist Political Advantage. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Cammett, Melani. 2011. “Partisan Activism and Access to Welfare in Lebanon.” Studies in Comparative International Development 46, no. 1: 70-97. At https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-010-9081-9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cammett, Melani. 2014. Compassionate Communalism: Welfare and Sectarianism in Lebanon. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Janine Astrid. 2004. Islam, Charity, and Activism: Middle-Class Networks and Social Welfare in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Janine Astrid, and Schwedler, Jillian. 2003. “Who Opened the Window? Women’s Activism in Islamist Parties.” Comparative Politics 35 no. 3: 293-312. At https://doi.org/10.2307/4150178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Dara Kay. 2013. “Explaining Rape during Civil War: Cross-National Evidence 1980-2009.” American Political Science Review 107 no. 3: 461-77. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055413000221.Google Scholar
Cohen, Dara Kay. 2016. Rape during Civil War. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coll, Steve. 2005. Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. New York, N.Y.: Penguin.Google Scholar
Costalli, Stefano, and Ruggeri, Andrea. 2015. “Indignation, Ideologies, and Armed Mobilization: Civil War in Italy, 1943-45.” International Security 40, no. 2: 119-57. At https://doi.org/10.1162/ISEC_a_00218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costalli, Stefano, and Ruggeri, Andrea. 2017. “Introduction.” In Stefano, Costalli and Ruggeri, Andrea, eds., “Politics Symposium on Emotions, Ideologies, and Violent Political Mobilization.” Special issue, PS: Political Science & Politics 50, no. 4: 923-27. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096517000993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deeb, Lara. 2006. An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi’i Lebanon. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eck, Kristine. 2007. “Recruiting Rebels: Indoctrination and Political Education in Nepal.” Himalayan Research Papers Archive. September. At http://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nsc_research/4, accessed October 30, 2017.Google Scholar
Gates, Scott. 2002. “Recruitment and Allegiance: The Microfoundations of Rebellion.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 46, no. 1: 111-30. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002702046001007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Gould, Roger V. 2003. Collision of Wills: How Ambiguity about Social Rank Breeds Conflict. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez-Sanín, Francisco, and Jean Wood, Elisabeth. 2014. “Ideology in Civil War: Instrumental Adoption and Beyond.” Journal of Peace Research 51, no. 2: 213-26. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343313514073.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez-Sanín, Francisco, and Jean Wood, Elisabeth. 2017. “What Should We Mean by ‘Pattern of Political Violence’? Repertoire, Targeting, Frequency, and Technique.” Perspectives on Politics 15, no. 1: 20-41. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592716004114.Google Scholar
Hanson, Stephen E. 2010. Post-Imperial Democracies: Ideology and Party Formation in Third Republic France, Weimar Germany, and Post-Soviet Russia. Cambridge, UK, and New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hirschkind, Charles. 2012. “Experiments in Devotion Online: The YouTube Khutba.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 44, no. 1: 5-21. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S002074381100122X.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoover Green, Amelia. 2016. “The Commander’s Dilemma: Creating and Controlling Armed Group Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 53, no. 5: 619-32. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343316653645.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoover Green, Amelia. 2017. “Armed Group Institutions and Combatant Socialization: Evidence from El Salvador.” Journal of Peace Research 54, no. 5: 687-700. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343317715300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoover Green, Amelia. 2018. The Commander’s Dilemma: Violence and Restraint in Wartime. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2003. “The Ontology of ‘Political Violence’: Action and Identity in Civil Wars.” Perspectives on Politics 1, no. 3: 475-94. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592703000355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2009. “Conflict.” In Peter, Hedström and Bearman, Peter S., eds., Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology. Oxford, UK, and New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N., and Laia Balcells. 2010. “International System and Technologies of Rebellion: How the End of the Cold War Shaped Internal Conflict.” American Political Science Review 104, no. 3: 415-29. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055410000286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khalili, Laleh. 2007. Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine: The Politics of National Commemoration. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kopstein, Jeffrey S., and Jason Wittenberg. 2011. “Deadly Communities: Local Political Milieus and the Persecution of Jews in Occupied Poland.” Comparative Political Studies 44, no. 3: 259-83. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414010384370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laumann, Edward O., Marsden, Peter V., and Prensky, David. 1992. “The Boundary Specification Problem in Network Analysis.” In Freeman, Linton C., White, Douglas R., and Kimball Romney, A., eds., Research Methods in Social Network Analysis. New York, N.Y.: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Leader Maynard, Jonathan. 2015. “Preventing Mass Atrocities: Ideological Strategies and Interventions.” Politics and Governance 3, no. 3: 67-84. At https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v3i3.320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leader Maynard, Jonathan. 2019. “Ideology and Armed Conflict.” Journal of Peace Research 56, no. 5: 635-49. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343319826629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leader Maynard, Jonathan, and Benesch, Susan. 2016. “Dangerous Speech and Dangerous Ideology: An Integrated Model for Monitoring and Prevention.” Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal 9, no. 3: 70-95. At https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.9.3.1317.Google Scholar
LeBas, Adrienne. 2006. “Polarization as Craft: Party Formation and State Violence in Zimbabwe.” Comparative Politics 38, no. 4: 419-38. At https://doi.org/10.2307/20434010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahmood, Saba. 2011. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mampilly, Zachariah Cherian. 2011. Rebel Rulers: Insurgent Governance and Civilian Life during War. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Manekin, Devorah. 2017. “The Limits of Socialization and the Underproduction of Military Violence: Evidence from the IDF.” Journal of Peace Research 54, no. 5: 606-19. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343317713558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDoom, Omar Shahabudin. 2012. “The Psychology of Threat in Intergroup Conflict: Emotions, Rationality, and Opportunity in the Rwandan Genocide.” International Security 37, no. 2: 119-55. At https://doi.org/10.1162/ISEC_a_00 100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moro, Francesco N. 2017. “Organizing Emotions and Ideology in Collective Armed Mobilization.” PS: Political Science & Politics 50, no. 4: 944-47. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096517001044.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Richard A. 2017. Deadly Clerics: Blocked Ambition and the Paths to Jihad. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oppenheim, Ben, Steele, Abbey, Vargas, Juan F., and Weintraub, Michael. 2015. “True Believers, Deserters, and Traitors: Who Leaves Insurgent Groups and Why.” Journal ofConflict Resolution 59, no. 5: 794-823. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002715576750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pachirat, Timothy. 2009. “The Political in Political Ethnography: Dispatches from the Kill Floor.” In Schatz, Edward, ed., Political Ethnography: What Immersion Contributes to the Study of Power. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Parkinson, Sarah E. 2016. “Money Talks: Discourse, Networks, and Structure in Militant Organizations.” Perspectives on Politics 14, no. 4: 976-94. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592716002875.Google Scholar
Parkinson, Sarah E. 2018. “Seeing Beyond the Spectacle: Research on and Adjacent to Violence.” In Clark, Janine A. and Cavatorta, Francesco, eds., Political Science Research in the Middle East and North Africa: Methodological and Ethical Challenges. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pedahzur, Ami, and Perliger, Arie. 2011. Jewish Terrorism in Israel. New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Revkin, Mara Redlich. 2020. “What Explains Taxation by Resource-Rich Rebels? Evidence from the Islamic State in Syria.” Journal of Politics 82, no. 2: 757-64. At https://doi.org/10.1086/706597.Google Scholar
Revkin, Mara Redlich, and ElisabethJean, Wood. Forthcoming. “The Islamic State’s Pattern of Sexual Violence: Ideology and Institutions, Policies and Practices.” Journal of Global Security Studies. At https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3654558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogowski, Jon C., and Sutherland, Joseph L.. 2016. “How Ideology Fuels Affective Polarization.” Political Behavior 38, no. 2: 485-508. At https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-015-9323-7.Google Scholar
Ron, James. 2001. “Ideology in Context: Explaining Sendero Luminoso’s Tactical Escalation.” Journal of Peace Research 38, no. 5: 569-92. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343301038005002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schatz, Edward, ed. 2009. Political Ethnography: What Immersion Contributes to the Study of Power. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneiderman, Sara, and Turin, Mark. 2004. “The Path to Jan Sakar in Dolokha District: Towards an Ethnography of the Maoist Movement.” In Hutt, Michael, ed., Himalayan People’s War:Nepal’s Maoist Rebellion. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Schubiger, Livia Isabella, and Zelina, Matthew. 2017. “Ideology in Armed Groups.” PS: Political Science & Politics 50, no. 4: 948-52. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096517001056.Google Scholar
Schwedler, Jillian. 2006. “The Third Gender: Western Female Researchers in the Middle East.” PS: Political Science & Politics 39, no. 3: 425-28. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S104909650606077X.Google Scholar
Schwedler, Jillian. 2007. Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Staniland, Paul. 2012. “Organizing Insurgency: Networks, Resources, and Rebellion in South Asia.” International Security 37, no. 1: 142-77. At https://doi.org/10.1162/ISEC_a_00091.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staniland, Paul. 2014. Networks of Rebellion: Explaining Insurgent Cohesion and Collapse. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staniland, Paul. 2015. “Militias, Ideology, and the State.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 59, no. 5: 770-93. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002715576749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Straus, Scott. 2015a. Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Leadership, and Genocide in Modern Africa. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Straus, Scott. 2015b. “Triggers of Mass Atrocities.” Politics and Governance 3, no. 3: 5-15. At https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v3i3.375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thaler, Kai M. 2012. “Ideology and Violence in Civil Wars: Theory and Evidence from Mozambique and Angola.” Civil Wars 14, no. 4: 546-67. At https://doi.org/10.1080/13698249.2012.740203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Jakana L., and Bond, Kanisha D.. 2015. “Women’s Participation in Violent Political Organizations.”American Political Science Review 109, no.3:488-506. At https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055415000313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ugarriza, Juan E., and Craig, Matthew J.. 2013. “The Relevance of Ideology to Contemporary Armed Conflicts: A Quantitative Analysis of Former Combatants in Colombia.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 57, no. 3: 445-77. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002712446131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viterna, Jocelyn. 2006. “Pulled, Pushed, and Persuaded: Explaining Women’s Mobilization into the Salvadoran Guerrilla Army.” American Journal of Sociology 112, no. 1: 1-45. At https://doi.org/10.1086/502690.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viterna, Jocelyn. 2013. Women in War: The Micro-Processes of Mobilization in El Salvador. Oxford, UK, and New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waters, Mark, dir. 2004. Mean Girls. Paramount Pictures, M. G. Films, Broadway Video.Google Scholar
Wedeen, Lisa. 1999. Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wedeen, Lisa. 2009. “Ethnography as Interpretive Enterprise.” In Schatz, Edward, ed., Political Ethnography: What Immersion Contributes to the Study of Power. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wedeen, Lisa. 2010. “Reflections on Ethnographic Work in Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science 13: 255-72. At https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.052706.123951.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wedeen, Lisa. 2019. Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wiessner, Polly. 2005. “Norm Enforcement among the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen.” Human Nature 16 no. 2: 115-45. At https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-005-1000-9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2006. “Variation in Sexual Violence during War.” Politics & Society 34, no. 3: 307-42. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329206290426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2008. “The Social Processes of Civil War: The Wartime Transformation of Social Networks.” Annual Review ofPolitical Science 11: 53961. At https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.8.082103.104832.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2009. “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare?” Politics and Society 37, no. 1: 131-61. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329208329755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean, and Toppelberg, Nathaniel. 2017. “The Persistence of Sexual Assault within the US Military.” Journal of Peace Research 54, no. 5: 620-33. At https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343317720487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yanow, Dvora. 2012. “Organizational Ethnography between Toolbox and World-Making.” Journal of Organizational Ethnography 1, no. 1: 31-42. At https://doi.org/10.1108/202466741211220633.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zech, Steven T. 2018. “Militant Group Storytelling: The Social Construction of Violent Practices during Armed Conflict.” Manuscript. Monash University.Google Scholar
Zech, Steven T. 2019. “Staging Peace: Community Organizations, Theatrical Performance, and Armed Conflict in Peru.” In Deborah Avant, Marie, Berry, Erica, Chenoweth, Rachel, Epstein, Cullen, Hendrix, Oliver, Kaplan, and Timothy, Sisk eds., Civil Action and the Dynamics of Violence in Conflict. Oxford, UK, and New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar