Greed and grievance in civil war

We investigate the causes of civil war, using a new data setof wars during 1960–99. Rebellion may be explained byatypically severe grievances, such as high inequality, a lackof political rights, or ethnic and religious divisions in society.Alternatively, it might be explained by atypical opportunitiesfor building a rebel organization. While it is difficult tofind proxies for grievances and opportunities, we find thatpolitical and social variables that are most obviously relatedto grievances have little explanatory power. By contrast, economicvariables, which could proxy some grievances but are perhapsmore obviously related to the viability of rebellion, provideconsiderably more explanatory power.