Theories of dysfunctional political transitions (Part 2)
Blog #8: Political violence and structural violence
Political violence is still striking around the globe. And now we know that it can bring a big threat into the entire humanity for the coming years, various groups are making an effort to prevent casualties caused by these different political violence and also structural violence. However, in order to achieve this goal, these groups needed extra help from its citizens. They cannot do it alone, they need us to initiate an action to fully prevent these violence and save as much as people from getting injured or killed.
Political violence can’t be predicted perfectly, but there’s a clear risk pattern. Violence is more likely where it has happened before. It begins with polarization followed by the dehumanization of opponents. Opportunistic politicians test the system, seeing how people react to violent language to determine the potential costs. These risky factors makes political violence vulnerable. Despite of this susceptibility, there are still ways to ward off this violence from happening;
One of this ways is about making people utilize their means in speaking up against violence. Words matter, since behavior is influenced by what we believe other people think. People who have more status or popularity are particularly influential. Thus, if people on social media actively participate in this movements, there is a higher probability of pressuring the authority to hold off their planned state violence. And since the government love to release nonsense statements and see how people will react to it, i think this preventive way could work.
Another way of preventing violence is that the government must also involved in this preventive measures by having a sense of urgency in addressing real-time problems that can cause violence. And we are not only talking about political violence but most importantly structural violence since it is not that visible compares to political violence. The government can work and cooperate from agencies or groups in order to set clear objectives they need in order to attain the ultimate goal: preventing violence from happening. The government could also create policies that will further protect the minority from being harm. In this way, the authority could meet their needs and it will result to satisfaction from these minority voices.
Preventing violence have many unprecedented challenges throughout the process, but if people are willing to cooperate and work on each other, we could have a real shot for a change here.
References:
Kleinfield, R. (2019). A Short Primer on Preventing Political Violence. Retrieved from https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/10/04/short-primer-on-preventing-political-violence-pub-79997
CIIAN (2006). Preventing Political Violence: Towards a Model for Catalytic Action. Retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/report/world/preventing-political-violence-towards-model-catalytic-action