Repression And Mobilization

Back in 1999, Christian Davenport had a conference at the University of Colorado (where he was employed at the time). The basic idea was to continue the discussion initiated by George Lopez and Michael Stohl in their series of books on the topic, including The State as Terrorist: Dynamics of Governmental Violence and Repression (1984), Government Violence and Repression: An Agenda for Research (1986) and Dependence, Development and State Repression (1989). These books are largely neglected but they serve as the foundation for much of what appears afterward.  In the ten years that preceded the manuscript, there had been a resurgence of interest in repression and violence within states.  Paths to State Repression improved our understanding of why states use political repression, highlighting its relationship to dissent and mass protest. The authors drew upon a wide variety of political-economic contexts, methodological approaches, and geographic locales, including Cuba, Nicaragua, Peru, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Israel, Eastern Europe, and Africa. This book is invaluable to all who wish to better under why central authorities violate and restrict human rights and how states can break their cycles of conflict.