The States must be Crazy, Part I: Dissent and the Puzzle of Repressive Persistence.

According to forty years worth of research, dissent always increases repression whereas state coercive behavior has varied influences on dissident activity. If the outcome of punishment is uncertain, however, the question remains: why would authorities continue to apply repression? Addressing this "puzzle of coercive persistence," I explore diverse hypotheses using information about activities undertaken by the U.S. government against a Black Nationalist organization in the late 1960s and early 1970s called the Republic of New Africa. From the results, persistence is attributed to: 1) a long-term plan to eliminate challengers deemed threatening to the U.S. political-economy and 2) the influence of particular agents of repression who were essentially engaged in a crusade against Black radicals. Both factors increased the likelihood that relevant authorities would continue to apply coercion despite failures; indeed, within this context, such an outcome actually called for additional repressive behavior. These insights are used to outline a new area of research for conflict scholars. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]