POLSCI 329S Chapter Notes - Chapter All: Guerrilla Warfare, Zapatista Army Of National Liberation, Politics Of The Southern United States
11 May 2018
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Politics of Violence
9.22.16 Reading Notes – Popular Movements in Autocracies (Ch 5, 6, 8)
Chapter 5: A Call to Arms
Leaders adopt compensatory measures during peaceful protests intensifies protest but doesn’t
lead to armed rebellion
Leaders give up on concessions, adopt punitive strategies social movements turn into
revolutionary action
o Occurs when there is asymmetrical information between leader and movement leaders
Trejo wants to explain by peasants of different regions behaved differently
o 1992: Mexican government approved a major constitutional reform that put an end to 60
years of land reform and laid the legal basis for the liberalization of land tenure
o Governors of the Mexican states were responsible for political repression
Mexico’s Indigenous Insurgency
Partial liberalization of Mexican authoritarian rule major wave of insurgent collective action
1990s – wave of collective action was mostly rural and primarily indigenous
EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army)
EPR was a predominantly rural army that declared war on the Mexican government in 1996
o Allied with radical communal indigenous groups
Measuring Indigenous Insurgent Collective Action
Indigenous rebellions: sustained acts of social contestation undertaken by organized armed
indigenous groups whose aim is to overthrow a political regime, change the structure of property
rights, or transform the political and territorial geography of a country by means of violent action
o Usually employs guerilla warfare because they are weaker than their opponents
Mexican peasantry almost universally opposed the reform
Mexico’s neoliberal agricultural reform was a deeply unpopular measure
o Source of relative deprivation
o Source of economic insecurity
o Source of moral indignation
Account for Cross-Regional Variation: State-Level Rebellious Activity
Dependent variable: level of indigenous rebel activity
Explanatory factors: state history of rural indigenous protest, state level of autocracy/democracy
Insurgency is more likely in less economically developed countries
o Income inequality
o Midst of unequal states
o Prior history of guerilla activity
o Mountainous terrain
HOWEVER, after including sociopolitical variables, the economic variables dropped out of
significance
o Even stronger predictors:
▪ Autocratic governments
▪ Effect of protest on rebellion is conditional on autocratic governance
▪ Autocratic handling of indigenous protests is associated with higher levels of rebel
activity
o Other results
▪ In the absence of protest, autocracy has no effect on the probability of rebellion
Southern Politics in Mexican States
Compare and contrast: Oaxaca (wuh-ha-ca) and Chiapas
o Oaxaca – introduced multicultural reforms and recognized major opposition electoral
victories in municipal elections peaceful mobilization
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Document Summary
9. 22. 16 reading notes popular movements in autocracies (ch 5, 6, 8) Leaders adopt compensatory measures during peaceful protests intensifies protest but doesn"t. Leaders give up on concessions, adopt punitive strategies social movements turn into lead to armed rebellion revolutionary action: occurs when there is asymmetrical information between leader and movement leaders. 1990s wave of collective action was mostly rural and primarily indigenous. Epr was a predominantly rural army that declared war on the mexican government in 1996. Partial liberalization of mexican authoritarian rule major wave of insurgent collective action: allied with radical communal indigenous groups. Mexican peasantry almost universally opposed the reform. Mexico"s neoliberal agricultural reform was a deeply unpopular measure: source of relative deprivation, source of economic insecurity, source of moral indignation. Dependent variable: level of indigenous rebel activity. Explanatory factors: state history of rural indigenous protest, state level of autocracy/democracy.
