THEORIES OF REBELLION - RELATIVE DEPRIVATION AND POWER CONTENTION

Hypotheses to explain cross-national variation in levels of rebellious political conflict can be grounded principally either in relative dep rivation assumptions of frustration-aggression theory or in expected u tility assumptions or rational choice theory. Previous theory and rese arch have tended to focus exclusively on one or the other approach or else have combined the two eclectically. To evaluate the validity of t hese competing theories in comparative macrosocietal research, it is n ecessary to formulate alternative models that can be confronted empiri cally. Equations for a relative deprivation model and a power contenti on model (grounded in rational action assumptions) are specified here and a test of the models is conducted with quantitative cross-national data. The results support the predictions of the power contention mod el.