From predators to providers: the role of violence and rules in establishing social control
Name
1052567590-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
21.91 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
880e9e9b57c263beadc9a5f6e2ad3f08
Author(s)
Wright, Timothy Flynn
Advisor(s)
Roger Petersen.
Alternative Title
Role of violence and rules in establishing social control
Date Issued
2018
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
In the modern world, social order is most often maintained by states, using a complex web of institutions, norms, and systems to control the population and govern their actions. In this dissertation, I ask how groups establish and maintain social control absent these powerful structures. To answer this question, I propose a new theoretical construct, based on a foundation of social science and observation of the competition for social control that occurred in Baghdad, Iraq from 2006 to 2008. I identify and test what is both necessary and sufficient for a group to establish social control over a population under conditions approaching anarchy. I argue that to establish social control, a group must do three things. First, a group must possess specific latent capacities that enable them to credibly control violence. Second, groups must apply violence in purposeful ways, ascending a hierarchy of increasingly complex collective activities to establish social control. Finally, social control is achieved only when the group uses violence to provide a specific set of benefits that provide utility not only to the group, but also to the population it seeks to control. I define this step as adjudication. Implications and applications are discussed.
Description
Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Political Science, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-267).
Subjects
Political Science.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science
Terms of Use
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