Unique Offerings: Ideological Competition and Rebel Governance

• In Event: Advances in the Study of Rebel Governance

Abstract

This study investigates the determinants that influence the ability and willingness of Non-State Armed Actors (NSAAs) to implement rebel governance, focusing on the impact of a group's ideological distinction from its adversaries and the prevailing government. In this study, we argue that by serving as a distinct marker, allowing constituents and internal and external supporters to distinguish, ideological differentiation helps expand NSAA’s political and economic resources, increasing both group ability and willingness to provide rebel governance. We test our hypotheses using a novel time-variant dataset on NSAA ideologies (Tokdemir et al., 2021), the Database for Political Institutions (DPI) to measure governments’ ideological orientations (Scartascini et al., 2020), and the Rebel Quasi-State Institutions dataset for rebel governance (Albert, 2022). Our research findings indicate that NSAAs displaying ideological differentiation from both other contenders and the state are more inclined to undertake diverse forms of rebel governance. Our study offers a novel contribution to the burgeoning literature on group ideology and rebel governance.

Authors

• Sema Hande Ogutcu-Fu, Lincoln University of PA

• Evgeny Sedashov, Higher School of Economics

• Seden Akcinaroglu, Binghamton University

• Efe Tokdemir, Bilkent University

• Carlos moreno leon, Universidad Icesi