American Society And Civil War

Introduction

From the advent of political society discussed by the ancient Greek philosophers to the ear1iest observations of American democracy and through the global adoption of democracy in the mid-20th century, the recognition of the centrality of humans associating with each other revealed and accepted in the context of participatory politics. For Aristotle (circa 335 BCE), in order for individuals to make the correct decision in choosing leaders, citizens had to know about each other. Lacking this knowledge, it was impossible to make proper political decisions for the community. In this way, Aristotle viewed the city as a group in which individuals interacted to gain knowledge of each other's character and preferences. This interaction was necessary when politics required the participation of citizens.

In his observations of ear1y American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville (1840) wrote at length on the prevalence and necessity of associations in the developing country. He viewed these associations as important to the participatory society that had blossomed. In America, associations engaged more successfully than in any other place in the wor1d at that time. By involving in associations, American citizens were able to overcome their lack of influence as unconnected individuals. Tocqueville observed that when individuals with a prevalent opinion met, they naturally combined themselves into an association. As the association grew, political actors forced to take notice of the association and recognize the preferences of the group members. In this way, associations empowered individuals in the political context, which forced accommodation by political actors. It is these associations that maintain the core of the civilian society, social networks, and social capital discussion.

Discussion

To know the root causes of civil wars has been the quest of most civil war researchers. In order to explain the incidence of civil wars, scholars typically take one of two approaches. One approach is rebel based; the other is state based. Theories belonging to the rebel-based approach seek to explain what motivates or encourages sub state groups to issue a competing claim to the right to impose a sociopolitical order and, ultimately, to engage in political violence in an effort to substantiate their claim. (Lemann, 2007)

Greed

Proponents of the greed explanation argue that rebels fight only when there is something to be gained by winning and when the probability of winning is sufficiently high. In other words, civil wars thought to occur because rebel groups have something economically tangible to gain by winning and have reasonable expectations of winning. The theories within this category therefore tend to focus on variables related to rebels' opportunities.

Two articles demonstrate the key dimensions of the greed, or opportunity, theory. Demonstrate that rebellions occur when they can be financed. Factors that affect the financing capacity of rebel organizations therefore are critical variables to civil war discussion. One variable is the cost associated with paying recruits. Explain that recruits forgo income to join themselves to a revolution. The benefits they get from joining and fighting must exceed this forgone income. Therefore, factors that depress the income recruits could ...