Mechanistic Taxonomy and the Dynamics of Radicalisation: Accounting for Intra-Movement Variance in the Anarchist Wave of Greek Clandestine Groups

One of the most recurring criticisms of mechanism-based approaches of contentious action has been the absence of a robust methodological framework for the detection and measurement of mechanisms. Indeed, while several authors have proposed different approaches for the systematic analysis of mechanisms, the field has remained overly dependent in the use of process tracing, which is regularly recognised as subjective and lacking analytical rigour. In an attempt to elucidate the conceptualisation and to maximise the validity of mechanisms’ measurement, this paper (re)introduces the mechanistic taxonomy of Faletti and Lynch (2008, 2009). According to this, mechanisms can be disaggregated to general mechanisms, to mechanisms-as-causes that make a process to happen through their interaction and mechanisms-as-indicators that alert us for the presence, in time and place, of the former causal mechanisms. To demonstrate the soundness of this mechanistic framework, we apply it to the study of the radicalisation process of Greek clandestine groups. Since the country’s transition to democracy four decades ago, Greece has regularly experienced instances of political violence; from low-level phenomena, such as vandalism, riots and clashes with the police, to high-level violence, such as the clandestine operation of armed groups. The last two decades, though, have seen the rise of an anarchist wave of clandestine groups, which despite a number of similarities they significantly differentiate from the notorious Marxist-Leninist groups of the 1970s - such as the Revolutionary Organisation November 17 (17N). Then again, upon closer examination the existence of two factions of anarchist groups can be witnessed, as groups diverge in terms of frames, tactics and organisation. Indeed, there is an anarchist-communist faction inspired by an amalgamation of anarchist and Marxist ideas, and an anarchist–nihilist faction that distances itself from the Greek revolutionary tradition and rejects class struggle; exemplified by the two most important groups of these factions, the Revolutionary Struggle (RS) and the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire (CCF). These differences constitute the research objective of this paper as it seeks to trace the contextual, cognitive and relational mechanisms that facilitated this discrepancy at the first place. Hence, through a focus on the groups’ collective action frames and based on a mechanism-oriented framework, this paper examines the radicalisation process of the two groups, in order a) to highlight the significance of the mechanistic taxonomy in the study of processes of collective action and b) to trace the mechanisms responsible for the intra-movement similarities and differences within the anarchist wave of clandestine groups.