Under conditions of guerrilla conflict, mass indiscriminate violence has been shown to effectively starve a guerrilla of its support. Consequently, counter-guerrilla mass violence is concentrated... Show moreUnder conditions of guerrilla conflict, mass indiscriminate violence has been shown to effectively starve a guerrilla of its support. Consequently, counter-guerrilla mass violence is concentrated within territories where a guerrilla is dominant. However, in roughly 40% of mass violence episodes (e.g., Rwanda and Cambodia), the violence was aimed at populations within areas of secure territorial control. These episodes have therefore been explained by attributing high-risk ideological preferences to leaders or as unique cases only. I argue that leaders under conditions of heightened elite rivalry, adopt mass indiscriminate violence against outgroup civilians to consolidate power. The violence serves two main goals. First, it helps build coalitions with constituencies that gain from violence. Second, it targets rival factions indirectly by undermining the formal monopoly of violence and forcing local security officials to facilitate or oppose the violence. The violence thereby provides rival supporters with an exit option, provides the regime with information on rival supporters’ private loyalties, and undermines rivals’ abilities to mount an effective resistance. These rivals can ultimately be purged from the regime. Based on newly collected original data on elite purges and on the type of mass indiscriminate violence for the years 1950-2004, I show that this type of mass violence, which I call ‘genocidal consolidation,’ is intimately connected to authoritarian consolidation. Show less
