17.581
Riots, Rebellions, Revolutions
Examines different types of violent political conflict. Compares and contrasts several social science approaches (psychological, sociological, and political) and analyzes their ability to explain variation in outbreak, duration and outcome of conflict. Examines incidents such as riots in the US during the 1960's, riots in India, the Yugoslav wars, and the Russian Revolution, in addition to current international events.
Spring 2013
Topics
- Introductory class
- Explaining social action
- Rationality
- Psychological approaches, relative deprivation
- Norms
- Emotions
- Structural explanations
- Dynamics of Contention
- U.S. Riots I
- U.S. Riots II: Relative deprivation and the 1960’s urban riots
- U.S. Riots III: The Rodney King riots in LA
- Threshold-based models
- Student presentations of agent-based modeling exercises
- Background to Eastern European cases
- Cascade models applied to Eastern Europe
- Violent rebellion in Kosovo
- Revolutions I
- Revolutions II
- Revolutions III
- Readings from the October 2011 edition of the Journal of Democracy
- Student presentations of comparative analyses of some aspect of the Arab Spring
Readings
- LEC #: 1 · TOPICS: Introductory class · READINGS: No readings
- [Elster] Chapter 1: “Explanation.”
- [Elster] Chapter 2: “Mechanisms.”
- [Elster] Chapter 4: “Motivations.”
- [Elster] Chapter 5: “Self–Interest and Altruism.”
- [Elster] Chapter 6: “Myopia and Foresight.”
- [Elster] Chapter 7: “Beliefs.”
- [Elster] Chapter 9: “Desires and Opportunities.”
- [Elster] Chapter 10: “Persons and Situations.”
- [Elster] Chapter 11: “Rational Choice.”
- [Elster] Chapter 12: “Rationality and Behavior.”
- Gurr, Ted Robert. “Explanations of Political Violence.” Chapter 1 in Why Men Rebel. 40th Anniversary Ed. Paradigm Publishers, 2011. ISBN: 9781594519147.
- ———. “Relative Deprivation and the Impetus to Violence.” Chapter 2 in Why Men Rebel. 40th Anniversary Ed. Paradigm Publishers, 2011. ISBN: 9781594519147.
- de Tocqueville, Alexis. “How the Spirit of Revolt was Promoted by Well Intentioned Efforts to Improve the People’s Lot.” In The Old Regime and the French Revolution . Translated by Stuart Gilbert. Anchor, 1955. ISBN: 9780385092609.
- ———. “How, though the Reign of Louis XVI was the Most Prosperous Period of the Monarchy, this very Prosperity Hastened the Outbreak of the Revolution.” In The Old Regime and the French Revolution . Translated by Stuart Gilbert. Anchor, 1955. ISBN: 9780385092609.
- ———. “How, given the Facts set Forth in the Preceding Chapters, the Revolution was a Foregone Conclusion.” In The Old Regime and the French Revolution . Translated by Stuart Gilbert. Anchor, 1955. ISBN: 9780385092609.
- [Elster] Chapter 13: “Responding To Irrationality.”
- [Elster] Chapter 19: “Strategic Interaction.”
- [Elster] Chapter 20: “Games and Behavior.”
- [Elster] Chapter 21: “Trust.”
- [Elster] Chapter 22: “Social Norms.”
- Scott, James C. “Introduction.” In The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia . Yale University Press, 1977. ISBN: 9780300021905.
- ———. “The Economics and Sociology of the Subsistence Ethic.” Chapter 1 in The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia . Yale University Press, 1977. ISBN: 9780300021905.
- ———. “Subsistence Security in Peasant Choice and Values.” Chapter 2 in The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia . Yale University Press, 1977. ISBN: 9780300021905.
- Popkin, Samuel L. “Political Entrepreneurs and Peasant Movements in Vietnam.” In Rationality and Revolution . Edited by Michael Taylor. Cambridge University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780521344197.
- [Elster] Chapter 8: “Emotions.”
- Horowitz, Donald L. “Say It with Murder.” Chapter 1 in The Deadly Ethnic Riot . University of California Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780520236424.
- ———. “Ethnic Boundaries, Riot Boundaries.” Chapter 2 in The Deadly Ethnic Riot . University of California Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780520236424.
- ———. “Fear, Hatred, and Rage.” Chapter 4 in Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth–Century Eastern Europe . Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780521007740.
- LEC #: 9–11 · TOPICS: Dynamics of Contention · READINGS: [McAdam]
- Butler, Judith. “Endangered/Endangering: Schematic Racism and White Paranoia.” Chapter 1 in Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising . Edited by Robert Goodings–Williams. Routledge, 1993. ISBN: 9780415907354.
- Oliver, Melvin L., James H. Johnson, Jr., and Walter C. Farrell, Jr. “Anatomy of a Rebellion: A Political–Economic Analysis.” Chapter 9 in Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising . Edited by Robert Goodings–Williams. Routledge, 1993. ISBN: 9780415907354.
- Cho, Sumi K. “Korean Americans vs. African Americans: Conflict and Construction.” Chapter 13 in Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising . Edited by Robert Goodings–Williams. Routledge, 1993. ISBN: 9780415907354.
- Schelling, Thomas C. “Sorting And Mixing: Race and Sex.” Chapter 4 in Micromotives and Macrobehavior . W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. ISBN: 9780393329469.
- LEC #: 16 · TOPICS: Student presentations of agent–based modeling exercises · READINGS: No readings
- Petersen, Roger D. “Background to Western Intervention in the Balkans.” Chapter 7 in Western Intervention in the Balkans: The Strategic Use of Emotion in Conflict . Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780521281263.
- [Judah] Chapter 1: “Albanians.”
- [Judah] Chapter 2: “Serbs.”
- [Judah] Chapter 3: “Creating History.”
- [Judah] Chapter 4: “From Dardania to Yugoslavia.”
- [Judah] Chapter 5: “Kosovo in Yugoslavia.”
- [Judah] Chapter 6: “From the Golden Age to the Memorandum.”
- [Judah] Chapter 7: “The Milošević–Rugova Years.”
- [Judah] Chapter 8: “The War.”
- [Judah] Chapter 9: “Kosovo after 1999.”
- [Skocpol] Chapter 1: “Explaining Social Revolutions: Alternatives to Existing Theories.”
- [Skocpol] Chapter 2: “Old–Regime States in Crisis.”
- [Skocpol] Chapter 3: “Agarian Structures and Peasant Insurrections.”
- [Skocpol] Chapter 4: “What Changed and How: A Focus on State Building.”
- [Skocpol] Chapter 5: “The Birth of a ‘Modern State Edifice’ in France.”
- [Skocpol] Chapter 6: “The Emergence of a Dictatorial Party–State in Russia.”
- [Skocpol] Chapter 7: “The Rise of a Mass–Mobilizing Party–State in China.”
- LEC #: 24–25 · TOPICS: Student presentations of comparative analyses of some aspect of the Arab Spring · READINGS: No readings
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2013
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.