State Repression in Post-Disaster Societies

A natural hazard is a physical event but a disaster is a social and political phenomenon. Natural hazards are, for the most part, unavoidable and apolitical. However, they carry with them serious political, economic, and social consequences. Disasters also have adverse consequences on human rights standards. An understanding of the relationship between disasters and human rights outcomes requires knowledge of how disasters increase grievance and frustration, and impact the probability of contentious political behavior. To date, there has been little empirical or theoretical research on the specific circumstances under which disasters impact antigovernment political behavior, and even less is known of the causal chain between a natural disaster, protest activity, and human rights violations. In this book, Clair Apodaca maps a comprehensive causal model of the complex interactions between disasters and human rights violations. She claims that pre-existing inequalities and societal grievances turn a natural hazard into a disaster.

A grievance-based theory of protests suggests that the underlying structural causes are social and economic group disparities, political exclusion, along with population pressures. To turn these all too common conditions into active political behavior requires a triggering event. When a damage?loss is the primary consequence of a disaster, the government and international community can compensate victims by providing rebuilding and reconstruction aid. However, when the disaster results in high numbers of fatalities, the government and international community cannot adequately compensate survivors for their losses. Grievances cannot be easily or effectively eliminated, and survivors and their supporters mobilize for change even if they are likely to face state repression.

Clair Apodaca offers a unique contribution to our understanding of human rights violations. She effectively shows that there is a causal process between hazard events, protest activities, and government repression, a finding that is key to scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers working in this field.

Table of Contents

Lists of figures

List of tables

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: The Causal Chain

Chapter 2: Root Causes: Disasters Lead to Grievances

Chapter 3: Proximate Causes: Public Displays of Grievance and Civil Unrest

Chapter 4: Government Response to Civil Unrest

Chapter 5: Theory-Based Causal Model of Disaster-Related Repression

Chapter 6: Empirical Support for the Causal Chain: Results of the Analysis of Disaster Related Repression

Chapter 7: Conclusion

Appendix

Index

Clair Apodaca is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Virginia Tech. Her research attempts to understand the many multifaceted and interrelated causes of human rights violations and how those violations threaten human wellbeing, the nation-state, and international peace.