EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY ON THE EMERGENCE AND ESCALATION OF VIOLENT CONFLICT: A CRITICAL TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF MARX, GALTUNG, AND GURR

Abstract

Social inequality remains a significant concern in conflict studies because unequal access to wealth, political power, social opportunities, and institutional resources can intensify collective grievances and undermine social cohesion. This study examines how structural inequalities contribute to the emergence and escalation of violent conflict through a critical textual analysis of three foundational works: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s The Communist Manifesto (1848), Johan Galtung’s “Violence, Peace, and Peace Research” (1969), and Ted Robert Gurr’s Why Men Rebel (1970). Drawing on these texts alongside recent scholarship on inequality and political violence, the study investigates the economic, structural, and psychological mechanisms connecting social disparities with collective mobilization. The analysis employs a qualitative interpretive approach involving close reading, thematic comparison, and critical examination of key theoretical concepts. Marx and Engels foreground class antagonism arising from unequal economic relations; Galtung expands the concept of violence to include unjust social structures that restrict human potential; and Gurr explains how perceived discrepancies between expectations and actual opportunities can generate relative deprivation. Contemporary research further suggests that the relationship between inequality and violence depends on group relations, patterns of social mobilization, institutional responses, and opportunities for peaceful participation. The study argues that inequality should not be treated as an automatic cause of violence but as a structural condition whose effects are mediated by political and social processes. It concludes that equitable resource distribution, inclusive governance, and effective grievance-resolution mechanisms are essential to sustainable peace building