Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T10:09:38.787Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Risks: Participation in an Ethnic Rebellion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2016

GÜNEŞ MURAT TEZCÜR
GÜNEŞ MURAT TEZCÜR*
Affiliation:
University of Central Florida
*
Güneş Murat Tezcür is Jalal Talabani Chair of Kurdish Political Studies, Department of Political Science, University of Central Florida (tezcur@ucf.edu; www.tezcur.org).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Why do ordinary people take extraordinary risks and join an ethnic armed rebellion? This article tests a series of well-established hypotheses about selfish and identity based motivations and a new hypothesis based on prospect theory. It then employs a unique multimethod research strategy combining one of the most comprehensive datasets on insurgent recruitment that contains biographical information about 8,266 Kurdish militants with extensive fieldwork involving in-depth interviews with relatives of the militants to test these hypotheses. The findings show the decision to rebel is as much political as economic and social. While security concerns and expectations of benefits affect the decision to rebel, social commitments, identities radicalized by state repression, and collective threat perceptions among efficacious individuals generated by political mobilization, rather than preexisting ethnic cleavages, also lead to participation in an ethnic insurgency. The latter findings explain the durability of insurgencies with limited economic resources and their ability to attract educated fighters.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 110 , Issue 2 , May 2016 , pp. 247 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2016 

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

Akerlof, George A., and Kranton, Rachel E.. 2000. “Economics and Identity.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 115 (3): 715–53.Google Scholar
Akerlof, George A., and Kranton, Rachel E.. 2005. “Identity and the Economics of Organizations.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 19 (1): 9–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised ed. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Arjona, M. Ana, and Kalyvas, Stathis N.. 2011. “Recruitment into Armed Groups in Colombia: A Survey of Demobilized Fighters.” In Understanding Political Violence, ed. Guichaoua, Y., York:, New Palgrave Macmillan, 143–71.Google Scholar
Aspinal, Edward. 2009. Islam and Nation: Separatist Rebellion in Aceh, Indonesia. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bandura, Albert, 1994. “Self-efficacy.” In Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, ed. Ramachaudran, V. S., New York: Academic, 71–81.Google Scholar
Beber, Bernd, and Blattman, Christopher. 2013. “The Logic of Child Soldiering and Coercion.” International Organization 67 (1): 65–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Andrew, and Jones, Kelvyn, 2015. “Explaining Fixed Effects: Random Effects Modelling of Time-Series Cross-Sectional and Panel Data.” Political Science Research and Methods 3 (1): 133–53.Google Scholar
Berekejian, Jeffrey. 1992. “Revolutionary Collective Action and the Agent-Structure Problem.” American Political Science Review 86 (3): 647–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blattman, Christopher, and Miguel, Edward. 2010. “Civil War.” Journal of Economic Literature 48 (1): 3–57.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Ethan. 2010. “Regime Change and Revolutionary Entrepreneurs.” American Political Science Review 104 (3): 446–66.Google Scholar
Cederman, Lars-Erik, Wimmer, Andreas, and Min, Brian, 2010. “Why Do Ethnic Groups Rebel? New Data and Analysis.” World Politics 62 (1): 87–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Çelebi, Elif, Verkuyten, Maykel, Köse, Talha, and Maliepaard, Mieke. 2014. “Out-group Trust and Conflict Understandings: The Perspective of Turks and Kurds in Turkey.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations 40: 64–75.Google Scholar
Chandra, Kanchan, and Wilkinson, Steven. 2008. “Measuring the Effect of “Ethnicity.” Comparative Political Studies 41 (4–5): 515–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Dara Kay. 2013. “Female Combatants and the Perpetration of Violence: Wartime Rape in the Sierra Leone Civil War.” World Politics 65 (3): 383–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Nissim, and Arieli, Tamar. 2011. “Field Research in Conflict Environments: Methodological Challenges and Snowball Sampling. “Journal of Peace Research 48 (4): 423–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, James S. 1990. Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul, Hoeffler, Anke, and Rohner, Dominic. 2008. “Beyond Greed and Grievances: Feasibility and Civil War.” Oxford Economic Papers 61 (1): 1–27.Google Scholar
Davenport, Christian, and Ball, Patrick. 2002. “Exploring the Implications of Source Selection in the Case of Guatemalan State Terror, 1977-1995.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 46 (3): 427–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Quervain, Dominique J.-F., Fischbacher, Urs, Treyer, Valerie, Schelhammer, Melanie, Schnyder, Ulrich, Buck, Alfred, and Fehr, Ernst. 2004. The Neural Basis of Altruistic Punishment.” Science 305: 1254–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Degregori, Carlos Iván. 1998. “Harvesting Storms: Peasant Rondas and the Defeat of Sendero Luminoso in Ayacucho.” In Shining Path and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980-1995, ed. Stern, S. J., Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 128–57.Google Scholar
Deycard, Frédéric. 2011. “Political Cultures and Tuareg Mobilizations: Rebels of Niger, from Kaocen to the Mouvement des Nigériens pour la Justice.” In Understanding Political Violence, ed. Guichaoua, Y., New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 46–64.Google Scholar
Eck, Kristine, 2010. “Recruiting Rebels: Indoctrination and Political Education in Nepal.” In The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal: Revolution in the Twenty-First Century, eds. Lawoti, M. and Pahari, A. K., London: Routledge, 33–51.Google Scholar
Ellemers, Naomi, Spears, Russell, and Doosje, Bertjan. 2002. “Self and Social Identity.” Annual Review of Psychology 53: 161–86.Google Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1985. “Rationality, Morality, and Collective Action.” Ethics 96: 136–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elster, Jon, 1990. “Norms of Revenge.” Ethics 100 (4): 862–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elster, Jon, 1998. “Emotions and Economic Theory.” Journal of Economic Literature XXXVI: 47–74.Google Scholar
Fanon, Franz. 2004. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove.Google Scholar
Fearon, James, and Laitin, David. 2003. “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.” American Political Science Review 97 (1): 75–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Allen. 1998. Formations of Power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Finkel, Steven E., Muller, Edward N., and Opp, Karl-Dieter, 1989. “Personal Influence, Collective Rationality, and Mass Political Action,” The American Political Science Review 83 (3): 885–903.Google Scholar
Fujii, Lee Ann. 2010. “Shades of Truth and Lies: Interpreting Testimonies of War and Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 47 (2): 231–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, Margo, and Steinberg, Laurence. 2005. “Peer Influence on Risk Taking, Risk Preference, and Risky Decision Making in Adolescence and Adulthood: An Experimental Study.” Development Psychology 41 (4): 625–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gates, Scott. 2002. “Recruitment and Allegiance: The Microfoundations of Rebellion.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 46 (1): 111–30.Google Scholar
Geddes, Barbara. 1990. “How the Cases You Affect the Answers You Get: Selection Bias in Comparative Politics.” Political Analysis 2 (1): 131–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, Jeff. 2001. No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1951. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, Roger V. 1991. “Multiple Networks and Mobilization in the Paris Commune, 1871.” American Sociological Review 56 (6): 716–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granovetter, Mark. 1978. “Threshold Models of Collective Behavior.” American Journal of Sociology 83 (6): 1420–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gurr, Ted Robert. 1970. Why Men Rebel? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gurses, Mehmet. 2015. “Transnational Kin and Civil War Outcomes,” Political Research Quarterly 68 (1): 142–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez Sanín, Francisco, and Wood, Elisabeth Jean, 2014. “Ideology in Civil War: Instrumental Adoption and Beyond,” Journal of Peace Research 51 (2): 213–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haerem, Thorvald, Kuvaas, Bård, Bakken, Bjørn T., and Karlsen, Tone. 2011. “Do Military Decision Makers Behave as Predicted by Prospect Theory?” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 24: 482–97.Google Scholar
Hale, Henry E. 2008. The Foundations of Ethnic Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harp Tarihi Başkanlığı. 1992. Genelkurmay Belgelerinde Kürt İsyanları;. 3 Volumes. İstanbul: Kaynak Yayınları, 1992.Google Scholar
Hechter, Michael. 1987. Principles of Group Solidarity. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hirshleifer, Jack. 1995. “Theorizing about Conflict.” In Handbook of Defense Economics, eds. Hartley, K. and Sandler, T.. Vol. 1. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 165–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, Donald L. 2000. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. 2nd ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Humphreys, Macartan, and Weinstein, Jeremy M.. 2008. “Who Fights? The Determinants of Participation in Civil War.” American Journal of Political Science 52 (2): 436–55.Google Scholar
Kahneman, Daniel. 2011. Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Kahneman, Daniel, and Tversky, Amos. 1979. “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk.” Econometrica 47 (2): 263–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2006. The Logic of Violence in Civil War. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N., and Kocher, Matthew A.. 2007. “How “Free” is Free Riding in Civil Wars? Violence, Insurgency, and the Collective Action Problem.” World Politics 59 (2): 177–216.Google Scholar
Kibris, Arzu, 2015. “The Conflict Trap Revisited: Civil Conflict and Educational Achievement.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 59 (4): 645–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kilcullen, David. 2009. The Accidental Guerilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Krueger, Norris, and Dickson, Peter R.. 1994. “How Believing in Ourselves Increases Risk Taking: Perceived Self-Efficacy and Opportunity Recognition.” Decision Sciences 25 (3): 385–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Alexander. 2011. “Who Becomes a Terrorist?: Poverty, Education, and the Origins of Political Violence.” World Politics 63 (2): 203–45.Google Scholar
Lerner, Jennifer S., and Keltner, Dacher. 2001. “Fear, Anger, and Risk.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 81 (1): 146–59.Google Scholar
Lichbach, Mark. 1994. “What Makes Rational Peasants Revolutionary? Dilemma, Paradox, and Irony in Peasant Collective Action.” World Politics 36 (3): 383–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
List, Christian, and Spiekermann, Kai. 2013. “Methodological Individualism and Holism in Political Science.” American Political Science Review 107 (4): 629–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyall, Jason, Blair, Graeme, and Imai, Kosuke. 2013. “Explaining Support for Combatants during Wartime: A Survey Experiment in Afghanistan.” American Political Science Review 107 (3): 679–705.Google Scholar
Marcus, Aliza. 2007. Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Mason, T. David. 2004. Caught in the Crossfire: Revolution, Repression, and the Rational Peasant. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Mason, T. David, and Krane, Dale A.. 1989 “The Political Economy of Death Squads: Toward a Theory of the Impact of State-sanctioned Terror.” International Studies Quarterly 33 (2): 175–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdam, Doug. 1986. “Recruitment to High-Risk Activism: The Case of Freedom Summer.” American Journal of Sociology 92 (1): 64–90.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug, Tarrow, Sidnew, and Tilly, Charles. 2001. Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, John D., and Zald, Mayer N.. 1977. “Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory.” American Journal of Sociology 82 (6): 1212–40.Google Scholar
McDermott, Rose. 2004, “Prospect Theory in Political Science: Gains and Losses from the First Decade.” Political Psychology 25: 289–312.Google Scholar
McDermott, Rose, James, H. Fowler, and Smirnov, Oleg. 2008. “On the Evolutionary Origin of Prospect Theory Preferences.” Journal of Politics 70: 335–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mercer, Jonathan. 2005. “Prospect Theory and Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science 8: 1–21.Google Scholar
Mutlu, Servet. 1996. “Ethnic Kurds in Turkey: A Demographic Study.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 28 (4): 517–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, Richard G., Craig, Stephen C., and Mattei, Franco. 1991. “Measuring Internal Political Efficacy in the 1988 National Election Study.” American Political Science Review 85 (4): 1407–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 2002. Democratic Phoenix: Reinventing Political Activism. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, Mancur. 1965. Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor. 2003. “Toward a Behavioral Theory Linking Trust, Reciprocity, and Reputation.” In Trust and Reciprocity, eds. Ostrom, E. and Walker, J.. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 19–79.Google Scholar
Parkinson, Sarah Elizabeth. 2013. “Organizing Rebellion: Rethinking High-Risk Mobilization and Social Networks in War.” American Political Science Review 107 (3): 418–32.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1970. Participation and Democratic Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pecency, Mark, and Stanley, William D.. 2010. “Counterinsurgency in El Salvador.” Politics & Society 38 (1): 67–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersen. Roger, D. 2001. Resistance and Rebellion: Lessons from Eastern Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersen. Roger, D. 2002. Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Posner, Daniel N. 2005. “The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi.” American Political Science Review 98 (4): 529–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Race, Jeffrey. 1972. War Comes to Long An: Revolutionary Conflict in a Vietnamese Province. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Romano, David. 2006. The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization and Identity. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saideman, Stephen M., Lanoue, David J., Campenni, Michael, and Stanton, Samuel. 2002. “Democratization, Political Institutions, and Ethnic Conflict: A Pooled Time-Series Analysis, 1985-1998.” Comparative Political Studies 35 (1): 103–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salehyan, Idean. 2007. “Transnational Rebels: Neighboring States as Sanctuary for Rebel Groups.” World Politics 59 (2): 217–42.Google Scholar
Sambanis, Nicholas, Schulhofer-Wohl, Jonah, and Shayo, Moses. 2012. “Parochialism as a Central Challenge in Counterinsurgency.” Science 336: 805–8.Google Scholar
Sambanis, Nicholas, and Shayo, Moses. 2013. “Social Identification and Ethnic Conflict.” American Political Science Review 107 (2): 294–325.Google Scholar
Shayo, Moses, 2009. “A Model of Social Identity with an Application to Political Economy: Nation, Class, and Redistribution.” American Political Science Review 103 (2): 147–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Benjamin, 2013. “Separatist Conflict in the Former Soviet Union and Beyond: How Different was Communism?” World Politics 65 (2): 350–81.Google Scholar
Snow, David A., Rochford, E. Burke Jr., Worden, Steven K., and Benford, Robert D., 1986. “Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.” American Sociological Review 51 (4): 464–81.Google Scholar
Stoll, David. 1993. Between Two Armies in the Ixil Towns of Guatemala. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Sunstein, Cass R. 1996. “Social Norms and Social Roles.” Columbia Law Review 96: 903–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TBMM. 2013. Terör ve Şiddet Olayları Kapsamında Yaşam Hakkı İhlallerini İnceleme Raporu. Ankara: TBMM.Google Scholar
Tezcür, Güneş; Murat. 2010. “When Democratization Radicalizes? The Kurdish Nationalist Movement in Turkey” Journal of Peace Research 47 (6): 775–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 1974. “Town and Country in Revolution.” In Peasant Rebellion and Communist Revolution in Asia, eds. Badgley, J. H. and Wilson, J., Stanford: Stanford University Press, 271–302.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 2003. The Politics of Collective Violence. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tullock, Gordon. 1971. “The Paradox of Revolution.” Public Choice 11: 89–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tversky, Amos, and Kahneman, Daniel. 1991. “Loss Aversion in Riskless Choice: A Reference-Dependent Model.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 106 (4): 1039–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varshney, Ashutosh. 2003. “Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict, and Rationality.” Perspectives on Politics 1 (1): 85–99.Google Scholar
Viterna, Jocelyn. 2013. Women in War: The Micro-Processes of Mobilization in El Salvador. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weinstein, Jeremy M. 2007. Inside Rebellion. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
White, Robert W. 1989. “From Peaceful Protest to Guerilla War: Micromobilization of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.” American Journal of Sociology 94 (6): 1277–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimmer, Andreas. 2013. Waves of War: Nationalism, State Formation, and Ethnic Exclusion in the Modern World. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth J. 2003. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth J. 2008. “The Social Process of Civil War: The Wartime Transformation of Social Networks.” Annual Review of Political Science 11: 539–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2009. “Ethnographic Research in the Shadow of Civil War.” In Political Ethnography: What Immersion Contributes to the Study of Power, ed. Schatz, E.. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 119–42.Google Scholar
Wucherpfenning, Julian, Metternich, Nils W., Cederman, Lars-Erik, and Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede, 2012. “Ethnicity, the State, and the Duration of Civil War.” World Politics 64 (1): 79–115.Google Scholar
Yılmaz, Aytekin. 2014. Yoldaşını Öldürmek. İstanbul: İletişim.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Tezcür supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Tezcür supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 590.4 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.