ABSTRACT
Scholars examining political violence mostly focus on violent acts directed against the existing power structure: student protests, riots, coups d’etat, etc., while violent acts committed by the government are either ignored or considered to be legitimate. This chapter attempt to place it within the context of the theory on violence as it has been developed for the scientific field of peace research. One of the reasons for such hesitation might lie in the fact that violence is more or less accepted as an integral part of the very concept of political power. Politics and power are inseparable. The process of change in the relationship between authority and force in the exercise of political power cannot be neatly divided into various phases. One of the difficulties in distinguishing violent methods of influence from non-violent ones is due to the fact that in political situations no one single technique is used to the exclusion of others.
