Counterinsurgent Paramilitarism: A Philippine Case Study

David Kowalewski
Additional contact information
David Kowalewski: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Alfred University

Journal of Peace Research, 1992, vol. 29, issue 1, 71-84

Abstract: Paramilitarism represents a common mode of regime response to insurgency. Two competing perspectives, the benevolent and the critical, offer differing predictions about paramilitary behaviors and public response. The study maps out the theoretical issues and conducts an empirical analysis of counterinsurgent paramilitarism in the Philippines in 1987-88 using newspaper data. Four dimensions of paramilitarism are examined: mobilization, constitutionalism, order-maintenance, and reactive public behavior. The results offer more support for the critical than for the benevolent perspective. The data reveal elite sponsorship and deviant social composition; perceptions of unconstitutionality and illegal behaviors; disruptive and abusive activities; and far more anti- than pro-paramilitary sentiment and political behavior. The findings hold true when specifications for sectoral spread, geography, paramilitary groups, and time are introduced. It is concluded that paramilitarism is a counterproductive counterinsurgent strategy.

Date: 1992
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://jpr.sagepub.com/content/29/1/71.abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:joupea:v:29:y:1992:i:1:p:71-84

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Peace Research from Peace Research Institute Oslo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().