The country of Markonia is ruled by a corrupt military dictator. Ownership of all the valuable farmland and economic resources is held by members of the leader’s family and close advisors. Reform activists in Markonia have demanded free elections, which they believe they deserve, but they fear the ruler will hold only a rigged election that will return him to power. The general population’s resentment of the situation pushes them ever closer to initiatinga civil war. Explain how this situation relates to the theories of Ted Robert Gurr.

What will be an ideal response?

In his classic work Why Men Rebel, political scientist Ted Robert Gurr offers a frustration-aggression theory for rebellion and civil war. According to Gurr, while frustration over lack of fairness, repression, inequality, and other matters does not necessarily lead to violence, it can do so if it is persistent and intense. Relative deprivation is critical to understanding when that threshold is crossed. Relative deprivation is the discrepancy between what people think they deserve and what they actually think they can get. According to Gurr, “The potential for collective violence varies strongly with the intensity and scope of relative deprivation among members of a collectivity” (Gurr 1970:24). It is therefore a very subjective phenomenon (even rich people can feel relative deprivation!), and frequently the sense of relative deprivation depends on the awareness of the opportunities and conditions of others. In this case, the people of Markonia feel a continued unfairness because members of the leader’s inner circle have all the power and wealth, and the free elections the people feel they deserve and the election result they expect to get are not closely aligned.