Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State
A Comparative Analysis of Italy and Germany

This book presents empirical research on the nature and structure of political violence.

Donatella della Porta (Author)

9780521473965, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 September 1995

292 pages, 8 b/w illus. 7 tables
23.6 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.588 kg

"...this is a very important book. Anyone interested in small-group political violence and/or social movements in general will find it worthwhile. Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State, offers a powerful model for research that will, I hope, be imitated." Robert W. White, Contemporary Sociology

This book presents empirical research on the nature and structure of political violence. While most studies of social movements focus on single - nations, Donatella della Porta uses a comparative research design to analyse movements in two countries - Italy and Germany - from the 1960s to the 1990s. Through extensive usage of official documents and in-depth interviews, della Porta is able to explain the actors' construction of external political reality. The empirical data are used to build a middle-range theory of political violence that incorporates an analysis of the interactions between social movements and the state at the macro-level, an analysis of the development of radical organizations as entrepreneurs for political violence at the meso-level, and an analysis of the construction of 'militant' identities and countercultures at the micro-level.

Foreword Sidney Tarrow
List of abbreviations
Preface
1. Comparative research on political violence
2. Political violence in Italy and Germany: a periodization
3. Violence and the political system: the policing of protest
4. Organizational processes and violence in social movements
5. The logic of underground organizations
6. Patterns of radicalization in political activism
7. Individual commitment in the underground
8. Social movements, political violence and the state
a conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Political activism [JPW]