Understanding insurgent resilience: the comparative robustness of familial and meritocratic insurgent organizations

This dissertation examines insurgent organizations and asks: are familial or meritocratic insurgencies more resilient to counterinsurgency pressures? It argues it is not the type of organization, per se, that determines resilience, but the efficiency functions of social capital and trust, which have different natures and forms in them. This is important because to date there has not been a comprehensive scholarly study of the resilience of familial and meritocratic insurgencies in the structural and social capital and trust contexts. It finds that while familial insurgencies can challenge incumbents from the start, they weaken over time, whereas meritocracies will generally strengthen.