ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, various ways in which political elites organise conflict and violence were considered. In Chapter 4, some of the reasons why leaders might wish to do this were discussed, along with a range of benefits that might accrue from such endeavours. As these mostly emerge once the decision to become involved has been made, more analysis is needed to understand what motivates participants in the first place. Here, research goes back many years. Writing over 2,000 years ago, Aristotle, for instance, noted that much social conflict was a result of grievances caused by the combined effects of the fundamentally unequal nature of Athenian society and of the perceived weakness and incompetence of the city's leaders in responding to this inequality. Comprehending the impact of grievances on human behaviour in general, and on the causes of conflict in particular, has made up a key element of the social sciences ever since. This chapter looks initially at the range of work, mostly emerging after the Second World War, which focuses both on understanding the ways in which grievances are formed and on the analysis of causal linkages between grievance formation and conflictive behaviour. Of key significance here is the notion of relative deprivation and its proposed relationship with frustration, action and rebellion – at the level of both the individual and the group. The way in which these factors change over time is also a fundamental concern. As the second section highlights, it has often been noted that societies going through processes of ‘modernisation’ or ‘development’ may be subject to greater disparities between the satisfaction of human needs and the general desire of the citizenry to acquire the perceived benefits of modernity. This can be seen as an important cause of grievance formation, collective frustration and conflict.
