Beyond greed and grievance: feasibility and civil war

Abstract

A key distinction among theories of civil war is between those that are built upon motivation and those that are built upon feasibility. We analyze a comprehensive global sample of civil wars for the period 1965-2004 and subject the results to a range of robustness tests. The data constitute a substantial advance on previous work. We find that variables that are close proxies for feasibility have powerful consequences for the risk of a civil war. Our results substantiate the 'feasibility hypothesis' that where civil war is feasible it will occur without reference to motivation.

Natural Resources, Social Conflict, and Poverty Trap

“…From the same point of view an increase in β R increase the probability of civil war (k d increases), but decreases the probability of social conflict in which the minority is entirely engaged in fighting (k p decreases). All these findings broadly agree with the empirical evidence on the causes and intensity of civil wars discussed in Collier and Hoeffler (2004) and in Collier et al (2006).…”

“…Many scholars, therefore, focus on the determinants of civil wars to study social conflict within a country. Empirical analysis by Collier and Hoeffler (2004) and Collier et al (2006) of the onset of a civil war and its long-run effects support the theoretical results of the model. Collier, Hoeffler and Sambanis (2005)'s finding that sub-Saharan countries have the highest probability of civil war onset gives further empirical support to present approach.…”

Horizontal Inequalities and Ethnonationalist Civil War: A Global Comparison

“…A more promising way to capture the link between uneven wealth distributions and conflict has been proposed by Stewart (2008b) and her colleagues, who 1 In more recent research, Collier, Hoeffler, and Rohner (2009) maintain that civil wars are caused by factors associated with "feasibility" rather than by grievances and other types of motivations. 2 Using a different conceptualization of vertical inequality conditioned on factor mobility, Boix (2008) reports a strong effect on internal conflict.…”

Tracking positive and negative effects of inequality on long-run growth

“…15 15 considered by Easterly (2007), and the proportion of mountainous lands, as used by Collier (2009). 18 Table 3 presents descriptive statistics for all the different variables considered as instruments and their correlation with inequality.…”