Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-d5ftd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-29T19:18:40.411Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inequality and Insurgency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 1987

Edward N. Muller  and
Mitchell A. Seligson
Edward N. Muller
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Mitchell A. Seligson
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Maldistribution of land in agrarian societies is commonly thought to be an important precondition of mass political violence and revolution. Others argue that because of the difficulty of mobilizing rural populations for political protest, land maldistribution is irrelevant except as part of an inegalitarian distribution of income nationwide. These rival inequality hypotheses have significant implications with respect to the kinds of reforms likely to reduce the potential for insurgency in a society. They are tested using the most comprehensive cross-national compilation of data currently available on land inequality, landlessness, and income inequality. Support is found for the argument that attributes the greater causal import to income inequality. Moreover, the effect of income inequality on political violence is found to hold in the context of a causal model that takes into account the repressiveness of the regime, governmental acts of coercion, intensity of separatism, and level of economic development.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , June 1987 , pp. 425 - 451
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ahluwalia, Montak S. 1976. Inequality, Poverty, and Development. Journal of Development Economics 3:307–42.10.1016/0304-3878(76)90027-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandura, Albert. 1973. Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Banks, Arthur S., ed. 1976. Political Handbook of the World: 1976. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Bharier, Julian. 1971. Economic Development in Iran 1900-1970. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bollen, Kenneth A. 1980. Issues in the Comparative Measurement of Political Democracy. American Sociological Review 45:370–90.10.2307/2095172CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bornischier, Volker, and Heintz, Peter, eds. 1979. Compendium of Data for World System Analysis. Zurich: Soziologisches Institut der Universität.Google Scholar
Buss, Arnold H. 1961. A Psychology of Aggression. New York: Wiley.10.1037/11160-000CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Céspedes, Victor H. 1979. Evolución de la distribución del ingreso en Costa Rica. Serie divulgación económica. No. 18. Costa Rica: Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio.Google Scholar
Coleman, James S. 1960. Conclusion: The Political Systems of the Developing Areas. In The Politics of the Developing Areas, ed. Almond, Gabriel A. and Coleman, James S.. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1971. Polyarchy. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Fei, John C. H., Ranis, Gustav, and Kuo, Shirley W. Y.. 1979. Growth with Equity: The Taiwan Case. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States. 1981. Nineteen Seventy World Census of Agriculture: Analysis and International Comparison of the Results. Rome: author.Google Scholar
Gamson, William A. 1975. The Strategy of Social Protest. Homewood, IL: Dorsey.Google Scholar
Green, Jerrold D. 1982. Revolution in Iran. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Green, Jerrold D. 1984. Countermobilization as a Revolutionary Form. Comparative Politics 16: 153–69.10.2307/421604CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gurr, Ted Robert. 1970. Why Men Rebel. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hardy, Melissa A. 1979. Economic Growth, Distributional Inequality, and Political Conflict in Industrial Societies. Journal of Political and Military Sociology 5:209–27.Google Scholar
Hibbs, Douglas A. 1973. Mass Political Violence. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1968. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Jabbari, Ahmad. 1981. Economic Factors in Iran's Revolution: Poverty, Inequality, and Inflation. In Iran: Essays on a Revolution in the Making, ed. Jabbari, Ahmad and Olson, Robert. Lexington, KY: Mazda.Google Scholar
Jain, Shail. 1975. Size Distribution of Income. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Keddie, Nikki R. 1968. The Iranian Village before and after Land Reform. Journal of Contemporary History 3:69–91.10.1177/002200946800300305CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leal, Maria Angela. 1983. Heritage of Hunger: Population, Land, and Survival. In Revolution in Central America, ed. Stanford, Central America Action Network. Boulder, CO: West-view.Google Scholar
Linehan, William J. 1976. Models for the Measurement of Political Instability. Political Methodology 3:441–86.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug. 1982. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Midlarsky, Manus I. 1981. The Revolutionary Transformation of Foreign Policy: Agrarianism and Its International Impact. In The Political Economy of Foreign Policy Behavior, ed. Kegley, Charles W. and McGowan, Patrick J.. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Midlarsky, Manus I. 1982. Scarcity and Inequality. Journal of Conflict Resolution 26:3–38.10.1177/0022002782026001001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Midlarsky, Manus I., and Roberts, Kenneth. 1985. Class, State, and Revolution in Central America: Nicaragua and El Salvador Compared. Journal of Conflict Resolution 29:163–93.10.1177/0022002785029002001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muller, Edward N. 1985. Income Inequality, Regime Repressiveness, and Political Violence. American Sociological Review 50:47–61.Google Scholar
Muller, Edward N. 1986. Income Inequality and Political Violence: The Effect of Influential Cases. American Sociological Review 51:441–45.10.2307/2095316CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, Jack. 1976. Erratum. World Politics 28:315.10.2307/2009895CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norusis, Marija J. 1986. SPSS/PC+. Chicago: SPSS.Google Scholar
Oberschall, Anthony. 1973. Social Conflict and Social Movements. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Paige, Jeffery M. 1975. Agrarian Revolution. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Paukert, Felix. 1973. Income Distribution at Different Levels of Development: A Survey of Evidence. International Labour Review 108:97–125.Google Scholar
Prosterman, Roy L. 1976. IRI: A Simplified Predictive Index of Rural Instability. Comparative Politics 8:339–54.10.2307/421404CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prosterman, Roy L., and Riedinger, Jeffrey M.. 1982. Toward an Index of Democratic Development. In Freedom in the World: Political Rights and Civil Liberties 1982, ed. Gastil, Raymond D.. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Roberti, Paolo. 1974. Income Distribution: A Time-Series and a Cross-Section Survey. Economic Journal 84:629–38.10.2307/2231048CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russett, Bruce M. 1964. Inequality and Instability: The Relation of Land Tenure to Politics. World Politics 16:442–54.10.2307/2009581CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sawyer, Malcolm. 1976. Income Distribution in OECD Countries. OECD Economic Outlook, Occasional Studies, July, 3–36.Google Scholar
Seligson, Mitchell A., Hough, Richard, Kelley, John, Miller, Stephen, Derossier, Russell, and Mann, Fred L.. 1983. Land and Labor in Guatemala: An Assessment. Washington, DC. Agency for International Development and Development Associates.Google Scholar
Sigelman, Lee, and Simpson, Miles. 1977. A Cross-National Test of the Linkage between Economic Inequality and Political Violence. Journal of Conflict Resolution 21:105–28.10.1177/002200277702100106CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skocpol, Theda. 1979. States and Social Revolutions. New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511815805CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanter, Raymond, and Midlarsky, Manus I.. 1967. A Theory of Revolution. Journal of Conflict Resolution 11:264–80.10.1177/002200276701100302CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Charles L., and Hudson, Michael C.. 1972. World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators. 2d ed. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles L., and Jodice, David A.. 1983. World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators. 3d ed. Vols. 1 and 2. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 1969. Collective Violence in European Perspective. In Violence in America: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, ed. Graham, Hugh Davis and Gurr, Ted Robert. New York: Signet Books.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 1978. From Mobilization to Revolution. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Trejos, Juan Diego. 1983. La distribución del ingreso de las familias Costarricenses: Algunas características en 1977. San Jose: Instituto investigaciones en ciencias económicas, Universidad de Costa Rica, No. 50.Google Scholar
Tsiang, S. C. 1984. Taiwan's Economic Miracle: Lessons in Economic Development. In World Economic Growth, ed. Harberger, Arnold C.. San Francisco: Institute for Contemporary Studies.Google Scholar
United States Agency for International Development. 1983. Country Development Strategy Statement: Jamaica, FY 1985. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Webb, Richard C. 1976. The Distribution of Income in Peru. In Income Distribution in Latin America, ed. Foxley, Alejandro. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weede, Erich. 1981. Income Inequality, Average Income, and Domestic Violence. Journal of Conflict Resolution 25:639–53.Google Scholar
Weede, Erich. 1986. Income Inequality and Political Violence Reconsidered. American Sociological Review 51:438–41.10.2307/2095315CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank. 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985. World Development Report. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.