Reviews: Geography and Regional Administration, French Revolution 1968, The Beginning of the End: France, May 1968, The Student Revolt: The Activists Speak, Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative, Resistance: The Political Autobiography of Georges Bidault, The New French Revolution: A Social and Economic Survey of France, 1945–1967, The Government of France, French Politics and Political Institutions, The Army of the Republic: The Role of the Military in the Political and Constitutional Evolution of
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B. Keith-Lucas, N. P. Keatinge, Robert S. Short, L. P. O'Sullivan, Margherita Rendel, R. J. Harrison, D. L. Coombes, William Plowden, M. J. Walles, S. J. R. Noel, Dennis Dalton, Krishan Kumar
(+7 others)
1969
Political Studies
Environmental disputes occur frequently, particularly in contexts of poor natural resource management and vague law, but while some of these disputes end quickly without fatalities, some escalate to violence or become persistent contentious juggernauts that are increasingly hard to end. What makes a sequence of contentious events more likely to escalate to violence or persistent contention? This dissertation argues that strategic interactions in the form of violence, government behavior, and
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... rcity type signal the likelihood that the government will support claimant demands, and thus determine whether desperate claimants must escalate to maintain access to environmental goods and services necessary for survival. I also argue that there are material constraints from current repression and violence, and that timing matters. I test these propositions in two sets of logistic regressions, using new subnational data from Indonesia and an in-depth case study. I find empirical support for the claims that prior violence, structural scarcity, and past government repression increase the likelihood of continued contention. The same variables except for past government repression also increase the likelihood of violence. Current government repression reduced the likelihood of both violence and continued contention, but as time passed it exerted a more pernicious effect on violence and resolution. In other words, timing mattered, although dense events were surprisingly less likely to yield violence or continued contention. This project indicated that there are significant opportunities for reducing the likelihood of violence and persistent contention through policy changes, potentially reducing the suffering of individuals, the destruction of natural environments, and drains on the capability of the state. When I started graduate school a corps of mentors warned me that a dissertation is a lonely pursuit-most days are spent solitary, reading, writing, or swearing at your computer. What they didn't mention was that a dissertation, like a child, is also the product of a village. My village has asked and answered crucial questions, applauded me when I succeeded, bullied me into writing when I didn't want to, and helped me learn all the appropriate methods for my analysis, not least of which was how to ask for help. I would particularly like to thank all my committee members:
doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.1969.tb00642.x
fatcat:qtt6k5nzoncpbe2d33gpcvdnbq
