Why Do States Violently Repress Some Political Organizations, but Not Others? Evidence from Ethnopolitical Actors in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

Whom do states target with violent repression? While we know that states are more likely to repress threats to their rule, precisely who is threatening enough to warrant this response is less clear. To address this question, we focus on a set of actors who often bear the brunt of state force – ethnopolitical minority organizations – and argue that certain organizational behaviors and attributes are more threatening than others and therefore are more likely to be repressed. Using data from the Middle East and North Africa, our findings show which challengers are threatening enough to elicit violent repression.