Organizational and Institutional Approaches

Abstract

In this chapter we take a closer look at organizational and institutional approaches that study political violence from a social movement studies (SMS) perspective. The first section discusses the way “classic” approaches—such as those focusing on resource mobilization theory (RMT) and political opportunity structures (POS)—have been applied to the study of political violence. In the subsequent section we present a relational approach, focusing on organizational dynamics and inter-organizational interactions, as well as suggesting mechanisms that shape processes of conflict escalation or de-escalation, in three different arenas of interactions: between armed groups and the state; intra-movement and movement–counter-movement; organizational dynamics of armed groups.