Abstract

Can violence cause sedition and ultimately democratic breakdown? In this study, the claim is made that to understand the consequences of violence on democratic stability, both violence coming from non-state groups, such as terrorist and guerrilla organizations, and violence emanating from the state, must be studied together. In my initial examination of this question, the conventional social science concepts of legitimacy and order appeared to be inadequate for my analysis. Because of this, I will proceed from what might seem an unusual direction, Aristotle's political philosophy. ;The first part of the dissertation is conceptual. The concepts derived from the works of Aristotle and contemporary commentators on his work provide a framework of analysis to investigate the consequences of seditious violence on democratic stability. The Aristotelian framework replaces 'legitimacy' with an evaluation of the government, and ultimately the state, based on its rudimentary purposes, and 'order' with the concept of the political community. Aristotelian concepts help illuminate the effects of seditious violence and its consequences on democratic stability. ;The second part of the dissertation is a comparative, empirical analysis of the effects of seditious violence on democratic stability in three countries: Uruguay , Peru and Spain . Two hypotheses are tested. First, it is theorized that non-state violence threatens democratic stability by undermining both rudimentary purposes of the state, security and integration. As the purposes of the state are not fulfilled, then citizen confidence in the government should decline. As citizen confidence decreases, I expect an increase in democratic instability. Second, I hypothesize that state violence also undermines the rudimentary purposes of the state, integration and security. I expect a decrease in citizen confidence to follow the decrease in the fulfillment of the rudimentary purposes. Finally, as citizen confidence in the government decreases, I expect an increase in democratic instability. Overall, this inquiry seeks to explain, with reference to Spain's successful democratic consolidation, the demise of Uruguayan and Peruvian democracies and the initial popular support for the military takeover in Uruguay and Alberto Fujimori's autogolpe in Peru