Collective political violence arises from blocked pacific dispositions, not calculated strategy.

Evidence

The fundamental disposition of individuals (or groups) in politics is toward “peace”: the resolution or avoidance of violent conflicts. There would be no governments otherwise (see “contract” theorists). Satisfaction of political values is normally sought through pacific competition (electoral, through interest groups, by petitions, et cetera). Violent conflict is not in the normal “repertoire” of political competition. 2. The disposition toward pacific politics may be blocked and diverted under specifiable and “special” (aberrant) conditions. Given the disposition toward peace, the conditions should not readily occur, least of all in extreme forms of conflict. Collective violence thus involves the blockage of inherent tendencies by peculiar causes. 3. The critical problem in studying collective political violence thus is why it occurs as often as it does. 4. As to “peculiar causes,” the pacific disposition may be blocked when some other, discomfiting human disposition (which governments exist to suppress) is activated. This may be a disposition toward aggression or it may be a disposition toward comparing one’s condition in life with that of others. 5. It follows that choices of collective political violence are highly “affective” rather than coolly calculated. 6. The tendency to act violently in politics may be increased by cultural patterns—learned modes of action (these are always variable and “contingent,” of course). Violent action may be a learned response; and to the extent that this is so, pacific dispositions are more readily diverted. 7. Given the affectivity of collective political violence, two factors should play a rather minor role in its explanation (though they may play some role as “mediating” variables that reduce or increase probability). These are coercive balances between incumbents and their opponents and other factors that facilitate the successful use of violence. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4279

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out the inherency theory of political violence: peace is the baseline disposition, violence is aberration caused by blocked tendencies.
• BMF: The claim that governments exist to suppress a discomfiting human disposition toward aggression or social comparison resonates with Parable of the Sower, where anarchy makes explicit what governments normally suppress.