Why Men Rebel by Gurr Ted Robert;

Author:Gurr, Ted Robert; [Ted Robert Gurr]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 4096005
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Receptivity to Doctrinal Justifications for Political Violence

Diverse ideologies, slogans, and rumors can mobilize people for political violence. They are most likely to do so if people are intensely discontented, as is argued in chapter 4. Intensely discontented people are most susceptible to new doctrines when they are uncertain about the origins of their discontent, and more generally are anxious about the lack of certainty in their social environment. Because of their discontent, they are inherently disposed to doctrinal justification of aggressive action. Some arguments and evidence in support of these assertions follow.

Some scholars suggest that new doctrinal justilications tor political violence themselves create discontent. Heckscher says that the "propaganda auction" among competing groups making vast promises in prerevolutionary situations has the effect "of creating general unrest and dissatisfaction." 15 Hoffer says that ideologues prepare the ground for mass movements "by discrediting prevailing creeds and institutions and detaching from them the allegiance of the people" and "by indirectly creating a hunger for faith in the hearts of those who cannot live without it," thus facilitating the spread of new beliefs.16 However, revolutionary doctrines can be widespread yet have little apparent effect. Walzer shows that English Protestants who went into continental exile in the mid-sixteenth century, after Mary gained the English throne, developed and directed at England a remarkably vituperative ideology advocating violent revolution, but to no apparent effect.17 The ideology's lack of success in mobilizing popular support may have been due partly to inadequate communication channels; it may also have been due to a lack of discontent to provide a basis for action. Pettee, for example, asserts that "revolutionary myths" develop "only in response to felt need, and therefore only in an emotional context."18 Toch similarly says that people are susceptible to the appeals of social movements only if they are both aware of a problem and believe change is possible. "Although appeals themselves cannot create problems, they can call attention to problem situations, or reinterpret potential problem situations so as to create susceptibility." 19 These interpretations are consistent with the arguments summarized in hypothesis VE.l (chapter 4): new beliefs can heighten and intensify expectations, and justify violence as a means to their attainment, but men's susceptibility to these beliefs is a function of the intensity of their discontent.

The existence of intense discontent alone is not enough to justify violence. Experimental evidence indicates that discontented people act aggressively only when they become aware of the supposed source of frustration, or something or someone with whom they associate frustration. In psychological terminology, whether aggression results from frustration depends largely on the presence of aggression-releasing cues. Berkowitz proposes that "drives such as anger do not lead to the drive-specific behaviors (aggression in this case) unless there are appropriate cues or releasers," and that "the strength of the aggressive reaction to some thwarting is a joint function of the intensity of the resulting anger and the degree of association between the instigator and the releasing cue."20 Applying the argument to collective discontent, people are

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