Levels of Analysis and Variation in Civil War Violence and Restraint: Ideology and Contestation in Nicaragua

Abstract

How can we analyze violence against civilians in civil wars over time and with attention both to local context and international comparability? I argue that we should integrate theories across levels of analysis, applying this to testing existing theories of civil war violence and state repression in the case of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) in Nicaragua. Using interviews, archival evidence, and human rights reports, I argue that compared to domestic rivals and from an international perspective, the FSLN generally exhibited restraint, limiting violence against civilians due to an ideological commitment to discipline and civilian protection. Disaggregating the geographic and temporal contexts of violations at the subnational level reveals, however, that significant violence occurred where the FSLN had less territorial control, fewer civilian ties, and looser discipline, supporting contestation and command and control theories. Theories of violence may therefore explain variation at one level of analysis and not others within a given case, emphasizing the need for within-case disaggregation in explaining and comparing patterns of violence and state repression in civil wars, and the importance of unpacking violence committed by more restrained actors.