Political Violence: Switzerland, A Special Case?

Villiger, Carole

doi:10.1080/09546553.2012.677878

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…By contrast, political structures may provide opportunities for civil participation that induces radical oppositional groups to advance their interests in a non-violent fashion. This was seen in Switzerland during the turbulent 1970s, where revolutionary leftists channelled most of their extra-parliamentary demands through the direct democratic system of referenda (Villiger, 2013).…”

Section: Political Opportunity Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The domestic democratic peace: How democracy constrains political violence

Veri

Sass

2022

International Political Science Review

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This article offers a systematic, longitudinal and cross-national assessment of the constraint democratic institutions place on domestic political violence. It formulates two structural equation models which allows for the examination of the relative contribution of formal institutions and political culture as sources of constraint on political violence. Institutionalized opportunities for democratic participation significantly reduce political violence; however, these institutions only realize their full potential when embedded within a deliberative political culture. This article suggests that when oppositional groups view democratic participation as meaningful, and state elites engage with their claims, these groups are inclined to behave as radical democrats rather than violent extremists.

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Section: Political Opportunity Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The domestic democratic peace: How democracy constrains political violence

Veri

Sass

2022

International Political Science Review

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“…In her analysis of political violence in Switzerland, Villiger found there to be something distinctive about movements affected by global grievances: ‘The most intense acts of violence were those perpetrated by movements that were fighting for causes beyond [their] borders’ (2013: 685). By way of example, among the sources of globally oriented political grievance, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict figures prominently in the narrative repertoire of various movements, ranging from the Rote Armee Fraktion ( Della Porta, 2013 ), the Brigate Rosse ( Imarisio, 2003 ), the Irish Republican Army ( Miller, 2010 ), Swiss far-left groups ( Villiger, 2013 ), Black freedom struggles ( Daulatzai, 2012 ), Latin American revolutions ( Meari, 2018 ) and, of course, groups aligned with Islamist ideologies, from more moderate ones to so-called ‘al-Qaeda’ and so-called ‘Islamic State’ ( Ahmed, 2005 ; Hegghammer and Wagemakers, 2013 ; Lakhani, 2014 ; Mohamedou, 2018 ). As the Palestinian author and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Ghassan Kanafani once put it: ‘The Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only, but a cause for every revolutionary, wherever he is, as a cause for the exploited and oppressed masses in our era’ ( Meari, 2018 : 50).…”

Section: The Particular Case Of ‘Globally Oriented/inspired Grievances’mentioning

confidence: 99%

Politico-ideological violence: Zooming in on grievances

Ajil

2020

European Journal of Criminology

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Most studies on politico-ideological violence (PIV) recognize the importance of socio-political and economic grievances, but they rarely analyse them in depth. I argue that this is symptomatic of a tendency of depoliticization in radicalization research in the post 9/11 context and suggest that the study of PIV may benefit from putting greater emphasis on the element of grievance. A grievance-based analysis allows for critical and reflexive consideration of structural and systemic factors pertinent for engagement in PIV and may thereby contribute to demystifying and re-politicizing the current debate on PIV. I propose three ‘ideal types’ of grievances (racial, ethnic and religious; socio-economic; political), which may be locally or globally oriented or inspired, and suggest that a combination of those is likely to be present in most forms of PIV. I conclude with a few methodological reflections and potential implications for policymaking.

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“…13.For example, Villiger (2013) interviews activists in Switzerland, finding they consider violence as an expression of powerlessness against an unfair structure when legal democratic means appear ineffective. Further, Villiger (2013) notes “[t]he most intense violent acts occurring in Switzerland were those perpetrated by movements that were fighting for causes beyond its borders.”…”

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confidence: 99%

Income and Terrorism: Insights From Subnational Data

Jetter

Mahmood²,

Stadelmann

2023

Journal of Conflict Resolution

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This paper first introduces a theoretical formalization connecting a polity’s income level to terrorism. Our framework can accommodate different underlying assumptions about individual- and society-level grievances, yielding competing hypotheses. We then construct a panel database to study terrorism for 1527 subnational regions in 75 countries between 1970 and 2014. Results consistently imply an inverted U-shape that remains robust to incorporating a comprehensive set of region-level covariates, region- and time-fixed effects, as well as estimating an array of alternative specifications. The threat of terrorism systematically rises as low-income polities become richer, peaking at GDP/capita levels of ≈ US$12,800 (in constant 2005 PPP US$), but then falls consistently above that level. This pattern emerges for domestic and transnational terrorism alike. While peaks differ by perpetrator ideology, the inverted U shape also prevails across ideology-specific subsamples. In sum, alleviating poverty may first exacerbate terrorism, contrary to much of the proposed recipes advocated since 9/11.

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Political Violence: Switzerland, A Special Case?

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

The domestic democratic peace: How democracy constrains political violence

The domestic democratic peace: How democracy constrains political violence

Politico-ideological violence: Zooming in on grievances

Income and Terrorism: Insights From Subnational Data

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