Pertaining to this article below, can you help me with question 2 below? Article

Question

Pertaining to this article below, can you help me with question 2 below?

Article evaluation The assigned article is Jason Lyall, “Does Indiscriminate Violence Incite Insurgent Attacks? Evidence From Chechnya,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 53, No. 3, June 2009Preview the documentView in a new window.

2. Has the researcher proposed theoretical explanations for the political phenomena that interest him? Explain, briefly summarizing these explanations. Are these explanations logically sound, parsimonious, and general? (Make sure that you apply each of these three criteria explicitly and concretely.) Does he discuss any rival explanations? If so, what are they? Can you think of likely explanations he may have overlooked and should also be testing?

Explanation / Answer

The theoretical explanation provided by Jason Lyall is that indiscriminate violence creates new grievances while destroying economic opportunities among the fence-sitters in a population, leaving aggrieved parties few options other than resorting to arms. The State brutality, as a result plays central role in acting as a catalyst sparking retaliation. Once in motion, it becomes difficult to control them resulting in state's submission and exhaustion of resources.

The explanation is logical and when the said situation takes place, specifically, state's brutality, then this explanation holds good.

Yes, the explanation is general and exceptions may be overlooked. Also, it is parsimonious and holds only two assumptions - State's brutality in the situation and less options left with people to choose.

His findings contradict the theory and shows that indiscriminate violence reduces insurgent violence and this holds good across repressed villages and larger home districts. Also, if the casualties are more, there is less chance for insurgent attacks.

I feel that the only factor which was missed testing and should be included is reasons cited for indiscriminate violence. Few reasons like religion, caste has more power to incite insurgents attacks when compared to other reasons. However, researching such an idea to find out the cause which has more power to incite insurgents attacks is very very difficult.

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