Social Science Research Council

2009 DPDF Research Field:
State Violence

The state is the main perpetrator of violence against noncombatant and civilian populations—often its own citizens.  Although recent research has shed significant light on the causes and dynamics of insurgent violence, state violence remains noticeably under-explored.  We plan to build on these recent advances to broaden and deepen our understanding of state violence.  More specifically, we acknowledge the shift away from an explanatory paradigm that has all too often depicted violence as the outcome of irrational impulse and plan to move toward an analysis focusing on the strategic and organizational underpinnings of violence.

Three distinctive features characterize this area of research.

First, the focus is on principles of variation. The decision to commit violent acts against civilian populations may be grounded on different types of motivations: strategic, ideological, and expressive. Further, this decision may emerge at various levels of the state apparatus. In some cases, the state leaders are the planners; in other cases, subordinates of various ranks take the initiative; and some times, the task is farmed out to paramilitary groups.  Our goal is to account for the variation in the loci of decisions and in their motivational underpinnings. Similarly, state agents vary with regard to their propensity to enact the orders broadcasted by the center. We will examine how different types of organizational settings affect this propensity.

Second, this field calls for a diverse toolkit: dataset building and analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, primary historical research, and formal modeling of decision-making processes, among others.  We will strive to be simultaneously analytical and deep and we are, therefore, interested in research that either mixes methods or seeks to be informed by additional methods.

Third, this field is inherently interdisciplinary. We will borrow insights from the sociology of state organizations and the sociology of group processes. We will draw on the strategic models of political conflicts and contention developed in political science. Finally we will incorporate the insights of political anthropology, history, and area studies.

The workshops will emphasize research design and actively promote interdisciplinary interaction.  We encourage applications from students throughout the humanities and social sciences that focus on the etiology, organization, and effects of state violence; combine a close attention to the empirics with an investigation of patterns of variation; and attempt to link fine-grained dynamics on the ground with macro processes.  We welcome applications that cover the phenomenon of state violence in all historical periods and all geographic areas