Rebellion

Rebellion: A Violent Uprising Against Authority

Rebellion is a violent uprising against one’s government. It’s like when you feel so frustrated with the rules at home that you decide to challenge them, but on a much larger scale. A rebel is someone who engages in this rebellion, and a rebel group is a consciously coordinated bunch of people aiming for political control over an entire state or part of it. An insurrection is an armed rebellion, while a revolt aims to replace a government, authority figure, law, or policy.

Insurgents are rebels whose government doesn’t recognize them as belligerents. It’s like when you and your friends decide to start a club at school, but the principal doesn’t acknowledge it. If recognized by the established government, the conflict becomes a civil war. But what causes these rebellions? Often, they stem from political, religious, or social grievances that arise from perceived inequality or marginalization.

The word ‘rebellion’ comes from Latin “re” + “bello,” meaning to fight against the established order. But why do people rebel? Anger is a key factor, fueled by relative deprivation. This can be categorized into three types: decremental (loss of status), aspirational (desire for more), and progressive (gradual decline).

Rhetorical Question: Have you ever felt so wronged that you wanted to challenge the system? That’s what rebellion is all about.

The Dynamics of Rebellion

Charles Tilly argues that political violence is a normal reaction to competition for power between groups. He uses two models: the polity model and the mobilization model, which look at internal group dynamics and external relations with other organizations and the government. Revolutions occur when there is multiple sovereignty, where people must choose between obeying the government or an alternative entity engaged in a zero-sum game.

Chalmers Johnson views revolutions as symptoms of societal pathologies, seeing them as results of systems unable to adapt while maintaining fundamental values. He emphasizes that legitimacy relies on a society’s ability to integrate change and stresses the need to investigate a system’s value structure to understand revolutionary situations.

The Role of Peasants in Rebellion

Peasant uprisings are effective when peasants have autonomy from economic and political control, and the state and landowners must be weakened for revolts to occur. After peasant revolts, stronger centralized states emerge as a response. The new state’s support base depends on structural factors like industrial or rural sectors of society.

Mancur Olson’s work in The Logic of Collective Action explains that collective action is deterred by free riders and benefits are shared if a rebellion is successful. Samuel L. Popkin builds on this, introducing the concept of the ‘rational peasant’ who decides to join or not based on individual economic rationality.

Rhetorical Question: How do you decide whether to participate in something that could benefit everyone? It’s a complex decision influenced by personal and collective factors.

Economic and Social Factors

Economists Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler compare two dimensions of incentives: greed rebellion (motivated by economic interests) and grievance rebellion (driven by hatreds and resentments). The greed model performs better, as it accounts for individual risk aversion. Contrary to established beliefs, a multiplicity of ethnic communities can make society safer since individuals will be more cautious.

The Moral Economy of the Peasant considers moral variables such as social norms, moral values, interpretation of justice, and conception of duty to the community as prime influencers of rebellion decisions. This perspective adheres to Olson’s framework but considers different variables for cost/benefit analysis.

Emotional and Social Roots

E.P. Thompson discusses English bread riots in the 18th century, arguing that they were not spontaneous or disorganized events but coordinated peasant actions. He sees a legitimization factor in these events, with peasants defending traditional rights and customs.

James C. Scott’s book The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia examines the impact of exogenous economic and political shocks on peasant communities. Scott finds that peasants are primarily concerned with surviving and producing enough to subsist, labeling this phenomenon the ‘subsistence ethic.’

Rhetorical Question: How do you balance your immediate needs against long-term security? It’s a tough decision.

The Local Dynamics of Rebellion

Blattman and Ralston recognize the importance of immaterial selective incentives, such as anger, outrage, and injustice (‘grievance’), in the roots of rebellions. They argue that these variables are not irrational but driven by emotional grief and moral outrage. They identify three main types of grievance arguments: intrinsic incentives (injustice generates a willingness to punish or seek retribution), loss aversion (people evaluate satisfaction relative to a reference point, being ‘loss adverse’), and frustration-aggression (emotional response to highly stressful environments).

Kalyvas argues that political violence is heavily influenced by hyperlocal socio-economic factors, from family rivalries to repressed grudges. He identifies two structural paradigms: the idea of rebellion characterized by a complete breakdown of authority and an anarchic state, and the idea that all political violence is inherently motivated by abstract group loyalties and beliefs.

Kalyvas’ key insight is that the central vs periphery dynamic is fundamental in political conflicts. Individuals enter into calculated alliances with collective actors to gain local advantage. Rebellions are ‘concatenations of multiple and often disparate local cleavages, more loosely arranged around the master cleavage.’ Political conflict should not be reduced to a single pre-conceived explanation but focus on local cleavages and intracommunity dynamics.

Rebel governance includes systems of taxation, regulations, judicial systems, and public goods provision. One third of rebel leaders experience exile or death after peace agreements, while two thirds pursue politics or further rebellion.

Rebellion is a complex phenomenon, influenced by economic, social, and emotional factors. It’s not just about anger or grievances; it’s about the intricate interplay of local dynamics and broader societal structures. Understanding these complexities can help us better address the root causes of rebellion and work towards more peaceful resolutions.