Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
6-2025
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Political Science
Advisor
Susan Woodward
Committee Members
John Krinsky
Jillian Schwedler
Subject Categories
American Politics | Comparative Politics | Models and Methods | Other Political Science | Political Theory | Politics and Social Change | Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies | Race and Ethnicity | Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance | Social Justice
Keywords
social networks, political repression, Black Panther Party, Communist Party, International Workers Order, social movements
Abstract
U.S. history is awash with contentious episodes involving a legion of governmental and non-governmental actors operating through an array of means and arenas to destroy the political opposition. Yet, there has been little systematic examination in the repression literature of how and why repressive efforts proliferate so far beyond the police, military, and intelligence agencies tasked and equipped to preserve the existing order. This dissertation presents a novel framework for studying the relational basis of repression—particularly as it is organized, mobilized, and extended through a networked social structure. Social network analysis and interpretive case studies are conducted on two historical cases of repression targeting the International Workers Order (IWO) in New York City and the Black Panther Party (BPP) in the San Francisco Bay Area. New actors, activities, and spaces become interlinked and incorporated into the IWO and BPP repression networks via five pathways defined by different configurations of agentive and systemic, strategic and contingent factors. Dynamics of collaboration and conflict among repressive actors were informed by their relative position in the landscape of power, as well as how they responded to—and subsequently remade—their enveloping institutional and structural-historical conditions. The existence of networked repression urges greater scholarly attention to the internal heterogeneity of repressive work and how repressive actors’ relationships with one another crucially matter for the unfolding of repression. This also raises unsettling questions regarding state power and prospects of resistance in normatively democratic and pluralistic societies.
Recommended Citation
Tran, Thuy Anh, "The Invisible Hand of Networked Repression" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6320
Included in
American Politics Commons, Comparative Politics Commons, Models and Methods Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Political Theory Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Justice Commons
