Political agency and violence: understanding the causes of the Mountain Meadows Massacre
In contrast to political power - a generalised capacity for modifying the behaviour of other actors - the article conceptualises political agency as the actions of political actors which actually cause other actors to behave in a certain way. Analysing agency consists of identifying agents, actual v...
| Published in: | Religion, state & society |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
[2019]
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| In: |
Religion, state & society
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Mountain Meadows Massacre
/ Political action
/ Säumnis
/ Violence
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy KDH Christian sects TJ Modern history ZC Politics in general |
| Further subjects: | B
Political Power
B Agency B Mountain Meadows Massacre B Mormonism B Theocracy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | In contrast to political power - a generalised capacity for modifying the behaviour of other actors - the article conceptualises political agency as the actions of political actors which actually cause other actors to behave in a certain way. Analysing agency consists of identifying agents, actual veto players whose (in)actions lead to the outcomes in question, and explaining the causal relation between their (in)actions and the behaviour of other actors. Thus conceptualised, agency becomes an empirically grounded, value-free synonym for the more emotionally charged notions of political or moral responsibility. This model of political agency is then applied to an empirical analysis of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a mass murder of emigrants in Utah committed by Mormons and Native Americans in 1857. Three categories of factors are invoked - cultural, institutional and behavioural - to recreate the chain of necessary, sufficient, SUIN and INUS causes which led up to the event. |
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| ISSN: | 1465-3974 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion, state & society
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2019.1600326 |