Vigilantes: criminals or saviours?

Vigilantes have been an essential part of the political history of the entire world, shaping and reshaping political and legal institutions as resistance movements succeed and fail. Some examples include White supremacist vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan, feminist movements against domestic abuse like the Gulab Gang (Pink Sari Gang) in India, and climate groups like Extinction Rebellion. Many vigilante groups eventually become legitimised into state institutions by becoming official political parties, or enable the creation of hybrid security structures where governments outsource policing to armed civilians. The emergence of vigilantes reveal the deeply rooted issues of inequality, injustice, and neglected spaces of security and stability. It is a renegotiation of agency and accountability in response to state inadequacy. In this dissertation, I have chosen to focus on two particular types of vigilantism: far-right social dominance vigilantism and state-sanctioned or institutionalised vigilantism. We see the creation of vigilante publics, where the culture of political struggle, agency, and expression is linked with the use of extralegal violence. In the first chapter, I look at the emergence of far-right vigilantism driven by anti-immigration and nationalist rhetoric in Indonesia, India, Germany and Greece. In the second chapter, I analyse the implications of state-sanctioned and institutionalised vigilante groups in determining the role of the state in providing security, focusing on the Philippines, Uganda, Tanzania, and Nigeria. In both of these chapters, I identify similarities in coercive tactics, strategic alignment of the body, ideology, and the politics of exercising vigilantism as a communal right, as well as the role of delivering public goods to determine public authority. Because of vigilantism’s diversity in conceptualisation and operationalisation, in the third chapter, I consider how public opinion on vigilantism is an effective tool in maintaining momentum. I find that political histories, gender, class, and more play moderating roles in shaping public opinion, which has wider implications for securitisation and policy development.