Publication

This brief examines how the characteristics of a social conflict event, and the nature of the regime, interact to determine repressive outcomes in Africa. The authors argue that events that are more threatening to the central government are more likely to be met with force. However, they further state that this response is heavily conditioned by the reliability of state security forces. They conclude that in countries with a history of internal divisions, repression is far less likely, especially when protests threaten to divide the regime along ethnic lines.