Functional Logics of Political Violence

Abstract

Political violence is often seen as instrumental in nature but it remains unclear how certain strategies of political violence are connected to the perpetrators’ goals. “Terrorism”, for example, has been explained as violent “propaganda of the deed”, a way of provoking the state into a delegitimizing overreaction, costly signaling, or a mere tactic to attain process objectives. This Panel explores the functional logic of diverse manifestations of political violence, their tactical or strategic role, as well as how they can be connected conceptually. It is open to approaches from different theoretical perspectives and focusing on various forms of violent strategies.