Ideology and state terror

Abstract

How does ideology influence state terror? Studies on state repression have looked at the leaders’ decisionmaking to explain how much violence states use against internal enemies. However, government leaders usually rely on their security forces to produce violence. I argue that distinct ideological beliefs within the military apparatus produce different levels of repression even if leaders are determined to terrorize the population. I expect officers who share the ideology of their leader to willingly execute the government’s repressive program, while officers who do not share the leader’s convictions refuse to terrorize civilians. I study these dynamics in the case of Argentina’s Dirty War (1975–81) during which the government tasked its ideologically divided army with a nationwide terror campaign. Combining qualitative and quantitative data from historical sources, I identify the ideological beliefs and repressive behavior of military commanders. Consistent with my expectation, I find that loyal nationalist officers in the infantry, artillery, and communications branch of the army perpetrated significantly more violence than liberal cavalry officers who rejected the junta’s terror program. The results demonstrate that ideological beliefs within the state’s security apparatus can lead to violent outcomes that deviate from government orders.

International Sports Events and Repression in Autocracies: Evidence from the 1978 FIFA World Cup

“…To account for pre-World Cup trends in violence, we add Past Repression , which measures the history of state repression in each department between 1970 and 1977. Finally, we include fixed effects for military zones to control for subnational features of Argentina’s repressive system (Scharpf 2018).…”

“…Since the late 1960s, two left-wing insurgent groups called “Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo” and “Montoneros” had kidnapped and assassinated politicians and business representatives. The military interpreted these attacks as part of a world communist conspiracy that sought to infiltrate Argentine society, cripple the economy, and destroy the state (Gläßel, González, and Scharpf 2020; Scharpf 2018). To stop the chaos, the military staged a coup in May 1976 and implemented a ruthless terror campaign, killing thousands of alleged subversives (Klor, Saiegh, and Satyanath 2020; Pion-Berlin and Lopez 1991; Scharpf and Gläßel 2020).…”

Swords into ploughshares? Why human rights abuses persist after resistance campaigns

“…The new military leaders orchestrated a massive, semi-clandestine hunt for left-leaning dissidents until roughly 1983, producing tens of thousands of executions and disappearances. Although ideology played an important role during the conflict (Scharpf, 2018), soldiers also learned that repression could be profitable:At first, confiscated property taken from prisoners, such as clothes, furniture, money, or jewelry, was either given away to charity or turned over to agents who put the proceeds in secret accounts to pay for ‘special operations.’ They stockpiled seized weapons, cars, and fuel as well. Gradually, the task force leaders began keeping such plunder for themselves.…”

“…The new military leaders orchestrated a massive, semi-clandestine hunt for left-leaning dissidents until roughly 1983, producing tens of thousands of executions and disappearances. Although ideology played an important role during the conflict (Scharpf, 2018), soldiers also learned that repression could be profitable:…”

Unpacking “Stacking”: Researching Political Identity and Regime Security in Armed Forces

“…As Lindemann (2011, p. 24) argues with respect to the military's loyalty to Museveni in Uganda, "the political indoctrination of military leaders enhance[d] their ideological identification with the regime and thus lower[ed] coup risk" via political education, party membership and party functionaries in the military. Similarly, Adam Scharpf (2018) finds that more ideologically committed members of the Argentinian military were more willing to repress citizens during the country's dictatorship.…”