Can Club Model Explain the Rise of the Islamic State?
| Author: | Bc. Kristýna Matoulková |
|---|---|
| Year: | 2016 - summer |
| Leaders: | PhDr. Lubomír Cingl Ph.D. |
| Consultants: | |
| Work type: | Bachelors |
| Language: | English |
| Pages: | 107 |
| Awards and prizes: | |
| Link: | https://is.cuni.cz/webapps/zzp/detail/165532/ |
| Abstract: | The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has become a major threat of the contemporary period. It is therefore important to find the efficient way how to fight this group successfully. Besides political, social and psychological approaches to the counter-terrorism topic, there is also the club model in economics of religion that can surprisingly well model behaviour of radical extremist units and that proposes implications for counter-terrorism policy. It implies that terrorist organizations that provide social services can function as clubs. They introduce prohibitions such as dress code to ensure active participation and use sacrifices to screen out free-riders. Both of these practices make these groups unusually successful. This thesis has two main goals. Firstly, we show that ISIL has all the necessary attributes to fit into the club model framework, which we confirm by suggestive evidence that this organization uses escalated violence to select loyal members. Secondly, based on the club logic, we claim that efficient policy measures to fight ISIL should be focused on improving provisions of public goods in Syria and Iraq, creating better paid jobs and encouraging education. |
