Governing for Revolution
Social Transformation in Civil War

For some rebel groups, governance is not always part of a military strategy but a necessary element of realizing revolution through civil war.

Megan A. Stewart (Author)

9781108843645, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 March 2021

320 pages, 12 b/w illus. 1 map 13 tables
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.62 kg

Stewart's thoughtful analysis and careful empirical work shed light on a critical question that has hindered understanding of the dynamics of civil war: why do some rebel groups invest more in governing local populations than others? Her answers link the subjects of rebel governance to the consequences of war. Beautifully written and cogently argued, Governing for Revolution makes a significant contribution to literature on the social dynamics of political violence. Tanisha M. Fazal, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota

Prevailing views suggest rebels govern to enhance their organizational capacity, but this book demonstrates that some rebels undertake costly governance projects that can imperil their cadres during war. The origins for this choice began with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the Chinese Civil War. The CCP knowingly introduced challenging governance projects, but nevertheless propagated its strategy globally, creating a behavioural model readily available to later rebels. The likelihood of whether later rebels' will imitate this model is determined by the compatibility between their goals and the CCP's objectives; only rebels that share the CCP's revolutionary goals decide to mimic the CCP's governance fully. Over time, ideational and material pressures further encouraged (and occasionally rewarded) revolutionary rebels' conformity to the CCP's template. Using archival data from six countries, primary rebel sources, fieldwork and quantitative analysis, Governing for Revolution underscores the mimicry of and ultimate convergence in revolutionary rebels' governance, that persists even today, despite vast differences in ideology.

1. Introduction
2. Iron and blood: the global-historical context of rebel governance strategies
3. Rebel goals determine governance strategies
4. Research design and alternative explanations
5. The Eritrean liberation struggle: varying goals and varying governance
6. Changing goals and changing governance: the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
7. Modeling revolutionary governance in East Timor
8. Hezbollah: a Jihadist adaptation of the Chinese model
9. A statistical analysis of rebel goals and rebel governance
10. Conclusion: looking forward by looking back.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Comparative politics [JPB]