ABSTRACT
It may seem odd, at least at first glance, to talk about social or political systems that produce violent conflict. It is often said that the main purpose of organizing society systematically, of recognizing individuals and groups publicly, ordering their affairs, and regularizing their relations, is to do away with serious conflicts, or else to manage them in accordance with commonly accepted legal, moral, and political norms. Especially in the West, a structured social and legal order is commonly identified with civilization, in contrast to weak or failing states where violence is the norm, as in some Hobbesian state of nature. As a result, if violent social conflict erupts in almost any ordered society, people immediately want to know how the relevant conflict management systems failed, or why they became dysfunctional. In certain cases, however – the prison and the colonial-settler state are two examples – not only do structured systems fail to produce peace, they succeed very well in producing violence. Violent social conflicts need not be the result of system dysfunction. Depending upon the type of structure in play and other factors we will shortly discuss, they may be entirely ‘functional.’
