Understanding political
violence: concepts and
definitions
CDSN4002 POLITICAL VIOLENCE
MIRIAM MATEJOVA, PHD
FEBRUARY 26, 2024
Agenda  What is violence?
 What makes violence political?
What is violence?
Galtung’s understanding of violence
Young’s understanding of violence
 Structural violence: injustice, oppression
 “systemic constraints on groups not necessary the result of the
intention of a tyrant”
 “the vast and deep injustices some groups suffer as a consequence of
often unconscious assumptions and reactions of well-meaning people in
ordinary interactions, media and cultural stereotypes, and structural
features of bureaucratic hierarchies and market mechanisms – in short,
the normal processes of everyday life.”
 Focus on social groups and their sense of identity
 Faces of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness,
cultural imperialism, violence
Young’s understanding of violence
 Fear of random, unprovoked attacks
 Social context that makes attacks acceptable
 Aimed at members of a group because they are members of
that group
 Violence as a social practice (everyone knows it happens and
will happen again)
 Group violence is tolerated
 Random, systematic violence is irrational
What counts as violence?
 Why are some acts of violence seen as
being senseless and beyond
comprehension, while others are seen
as necessary and legitimate acts
needed to secure a better, more just,
and secure world?
Violence and Politics
 Clausewitz: violence is a
continuation of politics by other
means
 Historical, cultural, social
conditions make violence
possible
 What counts as violence is
normative and has changed
over time.
Political violence
 Mostly questions about power and legitimacy
Is violence an expression of power or powerlessness? When is
violence (ill)legitimate?
 About power that renders “othering” possible and that
creates the conditions of possibility for war or torture.
Violence and power
 Hannah Arendt: violence is not
the continuation of politics (as
Clausewitz wrote), but the
opposite of politics.; it occurs
when political regimes lose
their legitimacy and credibility
 Violence as an expression of
powerlessness
A thought
 What happens when we make distinctions
between legitimate and illegitimate violence?
 The lines are deeply political…