Industrial Violence in Italy, 1878-1903

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We use a unique source of data on each of over 6,000 strikes (many of them violent) occurring in Italy from 1878 to 1903 to address two major issues in the study of collective violence: the determinants of violence (the conditions under which conflicts become violent) and its consequences (whether violence promotes successful collective action). We also suggest strategic advantages of individual event data over the aggregate analyses which dominate empirical studies of these issues. Our results indicate that work stoppages are more likely to become violent when they are large in size and long in duration and occur over multiple issues; some of our negative findings on other issue dimensions challege long-standing assumptions in conflict theory. We then analyze the relationship between violence and strike outcomes and find that, net of other determinants, violent strikes are less likely to end in success for workers.