ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two types of rational choice explanations for the use of political violence. One type of explanation assumes that individuals are simply pursuing their material self-interest. Another type of explanation makes individuals’ goals exogenous, leaving them to be inferred from observed behavior or subject to ad hoc assumptions. At first glance, the brutal world of political violence may seem unrelated to the niceties of culture. Furthermore, although culture and rationality have long been seen as opposing explanations for political phenomena, cultural variables are particularly important for providing coherent rational choice explanations of many types of political behavior, including violent collective action. The chapter addresses shortcomings in rational choice and nonrational choice explanations of political violence, concentrating in particular on the inability of existing theories to explain why antistate collective violence should occur at all. It discusses the use of violence by each culture, both as state and antistate actors.
