Why do people join a violent movement?

What is it about?

Why do ordinary people take extraordinary risks and join an armed rebellion? This presents one of the most comprehensive datasets ever collected about an insurgency to address this question. It builds a series of hypotheses informed by sociological and economic perspectives to identify the multicausal dynamics of participation in an ethnic rebellion.

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Why is it important?

Civil wars have been a recurrent feature of world politics since the WW II. Violent organizations waging these wars would not be sustainable unless they successfully mobilize large number of individuals to fight in their ranks. This article studies the motivations of these individuals who usually risk their lives and find that self-interest is often inadequate to explain their decision to fight. Many of them engage in acts of political sacrifices on behalf of a larger group perceived to be under an existential threat. The findings have implications for ethnic insurgencies as well as religious violent movements.