The Social Fitness of Insurgencies: the Organizational Payoff for Legitimated Power
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The Social Fitness of Insurgencies: The Organizational Payoff for Legitimated Power By Christopher P. Dallas-Feeney B.S. in Business Administration, March 1977, Pennsylvania State University M.A. in Security Studies, May 2006, Georgetown University A Dissertation submitted to The Faculty of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of the George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the reQuirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 19, 2013 Dissertation directed by Nathan J. Brown Professor of Political Science and International Affairs The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of the George Washington University certifies that Christopher P. Dallas-Feeney has passed the Final Examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as of March 19, 2013. This is the final and approved form of the dissertation. The Social Fitness of Insurgencies: the Organizational Payoff for Legitimated Power Christopher P. Dallas-Feeney Dissertation Research Committee: Nathan J. Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Dissertation Director James Lebovic, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Committee Member Holger Schmidt, Professorial Lecturer in the School of International Service, American University, Committee Member ii © Copyright 2013 by Christopher P. Dallas-Feeney All Rights Reserved iii Dedication I wish to dedicate this Dissertation to my beloved father and mother, James A. and Margaret M. Feeney, to my beloved and unconditionally loving wife, Susan, and to my precious children, Juliette and Christopher. Thank you for your love and patience. I could not have done this without you. Dad, I wish you were here to celebrate with us but I am blessed to know you your spirit is with us every day. iv Acknowledgements Many great scholars and friends have helped me in this demanding but so gratifying ‘journey of the mind.’ Thank you to all of my patient and thoughtful Professors at George Washington University. Marty Finnemore, Susan Sell, and Harvey Feigenbaum were not only outstanding professors of political science but also kind and enthusiastic supporters along the trail. Thanks to Deepa Ollapally for your willingness to support this old dog’s application to GWU. Erik Voeten, you helped me understand legitimation as a limit on power. Thank you to all of the kind and thoughtful scholars that set the foundation for me at Georgetown. Dan Byman, you are an incredible talent and a remarkably patient teacher. Your enduring support at the beginning and throughout this journey is remarkable. Thank you to Bob Lieber and George Shambaugh for your counsel and scholarship. Thank you to the many kind scholars who never met me but cared enough to take my calls and share their expertise, especially John Horgan. I want to especially thank my Committee. Fred, thank you for your willingness to provide your expertise to a stranger. Steve, thank you for your continual willingness to teach and counsel an old dog who wants to serve the war fighter. Jim, thank you for your willingness to patiently share your deep insights about international security as well as your pithy sense of humor. Holger, thank you for your expertise on civil war and ethnic conflict, your insights about rigor in social v science research, and your friendship. Finally, Nathan, thank you for your leadership, your commitment to great scholarship but most importantly driving me (even now) to do outstanding scholarship. Your gentle but thoughtful and persistent guidance have built a stronger intellectual foundation in me. Thanks to all of you for teaching an old dog new tricks. vi Abstract of Dissertation The Social Fitness of Insurgencies: The Organizational Payoff for Legitimated Power An organization that seeks to transform persons, places or things needs resilience to achieve its goals. In their effort to transform their societies, political organizations compete “not just for resources and customers (followers), but for political power and institutional legitimacy, for social as well as economic fitness” (DiMaggio and Powell 1991). Weber believed that ‘turning raw power into legitimate authority was the central dilemma of politics’ (Ikenberry 2001:17). Political organizations that are transformation-seeking and also strategically use violence as part of their transformation missions – defined as insurgencies in this research - are arguably the most resource-intensive forms of non-state political organizations (Ashforth & Gibbs 1991; Weinstein 2007). There is wide variation, however, in the resilience of these organizations (Byman 2007 and 2006, Hoffman 2002). This dissertation will investigate the specific payoff to three insurgent organizations1 for their ‘social deposits’ to legitimate their power sufficiently prior to the shocks. The specific organizational payoff to be studied is the impact on the organization’s resilience. Goodwin & Skocpal (1989) noted that the lifeblood of any insurgent organization “is the ongoing provision of such collective and selective goods (e.g., security, social aid), 1 Sinn Fein/Provisional IRA, Hamas and Hezbollah. vii not ideological conversion in the abstract, that has played the principal role in solidifying social support for guerilla armies.” This research will challenge that position in the sense that the provision of material payoffs is likely necessary but far from sufficient to produce organizational resilience. viii Table of Contents Dedication.................................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements................................................................................................................. v Table of Figures......................................................................................................................xv Table of Tables .................................................................................................................... xvii Chapter 1 – Theory and Approach .....................................................................................1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................................1 Central Research Question and Primary Argument ....................................................3 Critique of the Current Literature .....................................................................................6 Social Movement Literature ..........................................................................................................7 Organizational Power and Legitimacy Literature..................................................................8 Collective Action Literature...........................................................................................................9 Organizational Theory Literature ...............................................................................................9 Culture and Identity Politics Literature ................................................................................. 10 The Civil War and Ethnic Violence Literature ...................................................................... 11 Key Concepts Used in the Research................................................................................ 13 Insurgency ........................................................................................................................................ 14 Legitimacy and Legitimated Power.......................................................................................... 15 Forms of Social Control..............................................................................................................................16 Legitimacy and the Link to Resilience.................................................................................................18 Gaining Empirical Traction on Legitimacy........................................................................................20 Organizational Strength............................................................................................................... 25 Resilience and Shocks................................................................................................................... 25 Social Deposits ................................................................................................................................ 27 Locating Social Deposits............................................................................................................................30 Alternative Explanations of Resilience for Insurgencies........................................ 37 The ‘Conditions of Supply’ School............................................................................................. 38 The ‘Levels of Demand’ School................................................................................................... 44 Compelling Followers to Follow – Violence and Selective Incentives .......................... 47 Other Considerations.................................................................................................................... 51 Information Management.........................................................................................................................52 Professionalizing the Insurgency ..........................................................................................................54 Case Approach ......................................................................................................................