Progovernment militias

DOI:	https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051915-045433
URL:	http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annur...
Dokumenttyp:	Zeitschriftenartikel
Erscheinungsjahr:	2017
Titel einer Zeitschrift oder einer Reihe:	Annual Review of Political Science
Band/Volume:	20
Seitenbereich:	127-147
Ort der Veröffentlichung:	Palo Alto, Calif.
Verlag:	Annual Reviews
ISSN:	1094-2939 , 1545-1577
Sprache der Veröffentlichung:	Englisch
Einrichtung:	Außerfakultäre Einrichtungen > MZES - Arbeitsbereich B Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften > Political Scinece, International Relations (Carey 2010-)
Fachgebiet:	320 Politik
Abstract:	Sociologists, political scientists, and economists have long emphasized the benefits of monopolizing violence and the risks of failing to do so. Yet recent research on conflict, state failure, genocide, coups, and election violence suggests governments cannot or will not form a monopoly. Governments worldwide are more risk acceptant than anticipated. They give arms and authority to a variety of nonstate actors, militias, vigilantes, death squads, proxy forces, paramilitaries, and counterbalancing forces. We develop a typology based on the links of the militia to the government and to society as a device to capture variations among these groups. We use the typology to explore insights from this emerging literature on the causes, consequences, and puzzling survival of progovernment militias and their implications for security and human rights, as well as to generate open questions for further research.