Repertoires and Violence in
Contentious Politics
Spath – 385 Arab Politics & Society
Spring 2010
A Typology of Religion? (Halim Barakat)
 Mechanism of Control
 Can legitimize the existing social order
 Can bring about unity if beliefs are open & accepting or society is
homogenous
 Mechanism of Instigation
 Mobilizational Tool
 Institutions for coordination; beliefs as ‘call’ to action (da’wa)
 Mechanism of Reconciliation
 “opium of the people”?
 Deprived become passive and submissive in their oppressed state
A Typology of Religion – Eric Davis
 Piety and Devotion – non-political
 5 pillars of Islam
 Shahada; Salat; Siyam; Zakat; Hajj
 Politicized Religion
 Ecumenical
 Hostile
 Critique??
 Communal Solidarity – rallying when facing threats
 Subterfuge for Criminal Activity – deceptive device
Distinct Categories of Islamists
(Coffman-Wittes)
Takfiri – radical fundamentalist (ex. Al-Qaeda)
•Violence
• Reject democratic governance as against God’s sovereignty
Nationalist Militant – combine Islamist ideology with
local political demands (ex. Hamas, Hizbullah, Mahdi Army)
•Violence, with formal political presence
•Weak states
Institutionalist – seek political role through state
institutions (ex. IAF in Jordan; MB in Egypt?)
IMPLICATIONS FOR DEMOCRACY??
Contentious Politics: a definition
Contentious politics: episodic, public, collective interactions
in which actors make claims that bear on someone
else’s interests, leading to coordinating efforts, in
which governments are targets, the objects of claims, or
third parties.
Social movements: sustained campaigns of claim making, using
repeated performances that advertise that claim, based on
organizations, networks, traditions, and solidarities that
sustain these activities.
Defining a Repertoire of Contention
 Contentious repertoires:
arrays of contentious performances that are currently known
and available within some set of political actors. (Tilly &
Tarrow, 2006)
 Set of tools available for use by political activists that
the general public would recognize as a form of political
protest.
 BRAINSTORMING repertoires in various settings
Islam as a Tool (cultural “tool kit”)
Framing – “tools that lend order and sense to an otherwise
confusing world by providing language that captures or constructs
the meaning of problems.”
• Attempt to make a claim resonate with the public
Framing in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s
What government activities were the movements challenging?
• US Troops in Saudi Arabia (Gulf War); Corruption and decadent
behavior of ruling family; Econ. Disparity; Dependence of Clergy
New ‘popular’ clergy gained public legitimacy (official vs. unofficial clergy)
Alternative frames – secular-liberal, nationalist, feminist, Islamic
Islamic frame – only one that resonated with society-at-large
• Led to Nasiha Petition (“memorandum of advice” from religious
scholars demanding change in government behavior)
Technology in the Repertoire
 Avoiding Technological Determinism – technology does not
automatically mean greater mobilization
 Innovations in communications technology must be analyzed
dynamically – operates in two opposing ways:
 lowers the costs of coordination among activists who are
already connected with each other; facilitates mobilization
 BUT –
 excludes those who lack access to the new means of
communication, increasing communications inequality and
prevents potential activists from joining
 Facilitate larger state coordination and the ability for states
to use repression.
Violence in the Repertoire
 Differentating between ‘Conflict’ and ‘Violence’
 Difference in degree and in kind (strategy); qualitative shift when
one starts to behave violently
 Popular View – Islamic activists are radical fanatics engaged in
irrational, deviant, unpredictable violence
 Does not explain why violence is used in certain places at certain
times
 More social-scientific view – we can at least try to explain why
we observe the use of violence when and where we do by
examining human behavior and political context
Hafez & Wiktorowicz
Violence in Egyptian Islamic Movement
 2 Questions
 Specific –Why did Islamists turn to violence in EIM?
 General -Why do social movements utilize violence as contention
given the presence of other tactics? What explains variation across
countries and over time?
 2 Forms of the ‘Popular View’
 Ideational Factors - Political or Religious ideologies can
completely explain the use of violence.
 Psychological Factors - Socioeconomic background tells us
something about grievances and therefore participation violent
groups (deprivation theories)
Why Contention?
Deprivation Theory
Hafez & Wiktorowicz
Violence in Egyptian Islamic Movement
 It is more effective to view violent activists as rational actors
operating within a context of opportunities and constraints that
inform decisions about appropriate tactics to use.
 Political Opportunity Structure – Focus on TWO
 Accessibility to institutionalized politics
o Access versus Exclusion
 State Repression
o Timing and Targeting
 What does this mean for political strategy?
Political Opportunity, Threat, & Contention
Political Opportunity Structure: features of regimes and institutions (e.g., splits in the
ruling class) that facilitate or inhibit a political actor’s collective action
Category
Increasing Threat
Increasing Opportunity
openness of regime
regime closing down
regime increasingly open
coherence of elite
increasing solidarity of elite
increasing elite divisions
stability of pol. alignments increasing stability
rising instability
availability of allies
potential allies disappear
or lose power
new allies in regime
available to challengers
repression/facilitation
decreasing facilitation,
rising repression
increasing facilitation,
declining repression
Timing and Targeting
TIMING
TARGETING
Selective
Indiscrim.
Pre-Emptive
Reactionary
FACILITATE
VIOLENCE
DETER
VIOLENCE
Hafez & Wiktorowicz
 3 Important Changes in Pol. Opportunity Structure
contributed to emergence of violence as a tactic

First, Egypt witnessed the deliberalization of institutional
politics in the 1990s (esp. Ikhwan)
 Second, the authorities in Egypt began to dismantle the
network of the Gama’a in Upper Egypt
 Finally, repression against the Gama’a was indiscriminate;
Hamas as Social Movement?
From the work of Glenn E. Robinson, “Hamas as Social Movement” in Islamic Activism
Hamas as Terrorist Group – Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades
Problems:
1. Ignores much of what Hamas actually does
2. Terrorism as a tactic vs. fundamental attribute
Hamas and Political Opportunity Structure
 Post-1977 change in Israeli policy toward the Islamist
movement in the Occupied Territories (election of
Likud Party in Israel)
 Internationalization of Islamist demonstration
 Beginning of Palestinian Intifada (1987)
 1993 Oslo Accords (Declaration of Principles)
Empirical Work - Event Analysis
 The fundamental unit of analysis in this study is the
contentious event.
 Event analysis is widely recognized as a tool for studying
waves of mobilization.
 It is essentially a way of tracking over time the rise and
fall of particular types of events and the features
associated with them (Beissinger 2002: 42).
Subject – Verb - Object
Transcription
subject
verb
object
the same night the mob (gathered)
mob
#gather
none
the mob committed great violences in
Surry-Street, in the Strand, particularly
at the Coach Office, not a window was left
with a whole pane of glass
mob
#break
owner of Coach Office
My research team found multiple accounts of these attacks in 1829’s Times of London.
Example
from Charles
Tilly’s
Study
onwithin
Great
Britain
Here
is how we transcribed
and classified
the major
actions
a cutting
incident on
May 4th:
Transcription
Verb
Broad Verb Category
certain evil-disposed persons riotously assembled
assemble
move
entered the dwellings of the journeymen silk weavers
enter
move
and maliciously cut and destroyed the silk in the looms
destroy
attack
#end
#end
end
a reward of 200L is hereby offered
offer
negotiate
The left hand verb presents our simplified transcription of the phrase’s central action.
The right hand column shows our placement in one of eight extremely broad categories
of verbs: attack, control, end, meet, move, negotiate, support, and other. (More on
verb categories in a moment.)
Source: Tilly. Contentious Performances Chapter 2. Unpublished draft 2007.
Empirical Work – Event Data Analysis
Figure 5.4: Demonstrations and Violent Events in the Soviet Union and Successor States,
1987-1992
300
250
Violent Events
Cumulative Number of Events
Demonstrations
200
150
100
50
Year
Source: Data Supplied by Mark Beissinger
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
0
From Hector Forero’s Student Memorandum