Power struggles and conflict recurrence: An examination of political competition in Madagascar

This study examines the extent to which political power struggles have an effect on the recurrence of conflict in a state. I create a model to examine the process of a political power struggle for the legitimate control of a state to measure the impact of particular events on an actor's political support. I then conduct an inductive examination of variables in the Malagasy political environment that may contribute to the instigation and recurrence of conflict. This research reviews several theories of conflict and development and proposes a theory of internal power dynamics that examines a series of singular events and identifies a form of cyclical conflict. Madagascar is employed as the case study.