Explaining why political violence happens is the field’s central theoretical problem.

Evidence

Most important, I will emphasize one theoretical problem, that of “etiology”: why does collective political violence, in general or in particular forms, occur, and why does it occur at different levels of magnitude and intensity? That problem has certainly held center-stage since about 1960, while the study of other phenomena (the “process” of revolution, issues of prudent action by authorities or rebels, determinants of outcomes, problems of postrevolutionary rule) have waxed and waned. Not least, the issue of etiology is the problem on which theoretical approaches now differ most, especially if we include in it the problem of why political violence takes different forms. And we may surmise that the solution of this problem will have important repercussions for all others. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4259