New directions in conflict research from an economics perspective - Conflicts Over Natural Resources in the Global South - page 48

Muslims are a regular target of such attacks, the attacks should be more appropriately
termed as pogroms rather than spontaneous rioting. The easing of sectarian conflict
in developing countries requires poverty reduction and the stemming of the inequali-
ties produced by economic globalisation. Declining poverty raises the attractiveness of
peaceful income, rather than the earnings related to loot and violence. The inequality
produced by globalisation produces richer sectarian individuals who fund communal
causes, leaving it to their poorer brethren to enact the violence. Hence, social safety
nets and the public provision of health and education that combat poverty and lower
inequality are essential. Localised institutional functioning also needs addressing. This
includes the often virulently sectarian outlook of local governments, such as the gov-
ernment of the Indian state of Gujarat. Furthermore, getting to know the “other'' by
way of increasing the bridging social capital between communities is also important
in building peace, as are the advantages of peaceful income to individuals.
3.6 CONCLUSIONS
In the last decade, our understanding of the processes underlying mass violent inter-
nal conflict has progressed to incorporate a greater variety of economic, political and
social factors, as well as institutions of conflict management. Methodological differ-
ences remain, but analysts of conflict have achieved a degree of consensus that violent
internal conflict is mainly brought about by relative deprivation and/or the compe-
tition over resources. These tendencies, however, can either be mitigated by good
institutional structures of governance or exacerbated by malfunctioning and degen-
erating institutions (the social contract). Indeed, one of the more robust statistical
findings regarding conflict risk is that low per-capita income increases the likelihood
of war. This is because lower per-capita income implies greater poverty, along with a
greater probability of institutional malfunctioning.
A well functioning social contract manages potential conflict and discourages vio-
lent challenges to the state by non-state actors. There are also well known quantitative
studies that cover all countries in the world and regard the determinants of internal
conflict. The general propositions that emerge are informative, stressing on the one
hand the presence of opportunity and feasibility in forming rebel movements, as well as
the failure of state capacity to restrain these tendencies. On the other hand, it has long
been recognised that deprivation produces rebellion. This relates to the differences
between what people have in terms of tangible socio-economic indicators (income,
assets including land, access to common property resources, access to public services,
education and health), and what they think are their just deserts. If they have less , they
may be inclined to rebel. Furthermore, in the absence of corrective policies, this is more
likely to cause conflict in more ethnically fragmented societies. The moot point here
is whether we are more concerned with individual relative deprivation or ethnically
based group relative deprivation as a source of conflict risk.
Yet a variety of lacunae remain in conflict studies. First and foremost is the com-
plex relationship between development and economic progress and conflict risk. Both
severe underdevelopment and rapid economic progress can produce conflict risk. The
former is associated more with the risk of civil war, while the latter usually associ-
ated with mass violent protest and localised rebellion that does not fundamentally