Loading...
Political repression motivates anti-government violence
Bartusevicius,Henrikas van Leeuwen,Florian Petersen,Michael Bang
Bartusevicius,Henrikas
van Leeuwen,Florian
Petersen,Michael Bang
Abstract
We examined whether political repression deters citizens from engaging in anti-government behaviour (its intended goal) or in fact motivates it. Analyses of 101 nationally representative samples from three continents (N = 139 266) revealed a positive association between perceived levels of repression and intentions to engage in anti-government violence. Additional analyses of fine-grained data from three countries characterized by widespread repression and anti-government violence (N = 2960) identified a positive association between personal experience with repression and intentions to engage in anti-government violence. Randomized experiments revealed that thoughts about repression also motivate participation in anti-government violence. These results suggest that political repression, aside from being normatively abhorrent, motivates anti-repressor violence.
Description
This research was part of the project Conflict and Democratization (CODE), based at Aarhus University and funded by the Innovation Fund Denmark (grant no. 4110-00002B). Additional funding was received from a grant from the Carlsberg Foundation (CF18-1108).
Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Aggression, Anti-government protest, Collective action, Human rights, Political violence, Repression, SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation
Bartusevicius, H, van Leeuwen, F & Petersen, M B 2023, 'Political repression motivates anti-government violence', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 10, no. 6, 221227. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221227