- A government is usually a participating actor in many intrastate conflicts, such as a government warring against factions that want to dispose the current leadership. However, in a complex framework, a government becomes a cause for intrastate conflict for a number of reasons. It may not provide the services necessary for a livable society, leading to factions demanding a change of government. Another scenario is a government may want a desired society within its country, and the government may drive out or kill specific ethnicities, political parties or religious groups from the country.
- Economic reasons often play a central role in intrastate conflicts. The government or dominant economic order of the country may create such class inequality in the country that groups of people may rise up violently. For example, a study by the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation showed that the rapid economic liberalization, such as the opening of economic markets, in former Communist countries caused social strife and tension. This may have been because civic groups and citizens were not used to such a radically different economic system and reacted to the government and state violently.
- Competition can be described as a situation where dominant government groups try to vie for government power over a country through force. For example, a military or military leaders may not support a specific leader or government in power. As a result, the military would use its weapons to overthrow the government and install a new government, often in the form of a military dictatorship. Other examples could include whole political parties that may want complete control over the government. Another example could be a rogue political faction or paramilitary group trying to overthrow a government regime through terrorism and war.
- Some scholarly research has found that ethnic and sectarian violence is the root to some intrastate conflicts. For example, if an ethnic group feels threatened by a minority or majority ethnic group, political factions may form to violently attack ethnic group populations. Many genocides in the 20th century are themselves intrastate conflicts, such as in Rwanda, Sudan or the states of the former Yugoslavia. Those examples previously listed included violence against minority populations within the geographic borders. Most situations do not evolve into ethnic cleansing, however, and instead ethnic tension occurs. For example, the Aceh Province, a region in Indonesia, has high amounts of sectarian tensions between the fundamentalist Muslim population of Aceh and the state of Indonesia.
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