Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Unrealized Expectations And Political Violence In Peru's Sendero Luminoso Insurgency, Michael J. Harrington

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The persistence of Sendero Luminoso’s insurgency since 1980 has produced a number of outstanding works on the history and politics of the movement. Nevertheless, the role of unrealized expectations and the ideological attraction of SL’s political violence, while often insinuated, has received less than thorough attention. Although several works examine Sendero’s ideology, none have yet considered the correlation between incongruent expectations and the ideological appeal of armed struggle. A possible reason for this neglect could be the perceived simplicity and remoteness of Sendero’s Gonzalo Thought ideology. Yet, Senderismo continues to inspire a small group of extremely violent guerrillas.

This paper …