Under the Gun (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781009242523)

Political parties are integral to democracy and yet they frequently engage in anti-democratic, violent behaviour. Parties can employ violence directly, outsource violence to gangs and militias, or form electoral alliances with non-state armed actors. When do parties engage in, or facilitate, violence? What determines the strategies of violence that they employ? Drawing on data from Pakistan, Under the Gun argues that party violence is not a simple manifestation of weak state capacity but instead the intentional product of political incentives, further complicating the process of democratization. Using a rigorous multi-method approach based on over a hundred interviews and numerous surveys, the book demonstrates that a party's violence strategy depends on the incentives it faces in the subnational political landscape in which it operates, the cost it incurs from its voters for violent acts, and its organizational capacity for violence.

Author: Niloufer A. Siddiqui
ISBN-10: 1009242520
ISBN-13: 9781009242523
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/17/2022
Pages: 292
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.23lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.69d