"If You Can't Beat Them, Kill Them"


| 2021
Kreuzer, Peter (2021): "If You Can't Beat Them, Kill Them". Fatal Violence Against Politicians in the Philippines, PRIF Report, 2, Frankfurt/M.

The killing of political opponents is an established practice in the Philippines, to which several dozen office­holders fall victim each year and which undermines democracy. In this report, Peter Kreuzer presents a detailed data set on this type of violence and answers the questions why the practice is so wide­spread and why it hardly ever provokes public debate. The analysis focuses on the peace covenant, a central means of symbolic politics to contain violence, but one that uninten­tionally naturalizes it.

See online appendix for detailed data on the topic.