Assessment Of Other Factors Research Articles

Collective Violence and the Problem of Group Size in Aggregate-Level Studies

Abstract The size of an aggrieved group is of central importance in explaining the nature and scope of its collective protests. Even though some theorists have claimed to be uninterested in the impacts of “size,” all realize that its effects must be controlled for in the assessment of other factors thought to underlie rebellion, e.g., inequality, political responsiveness, and the coercive power of authorities. There are a variety of means to measure and control for its effects, but few researchers have grounded them in systematic thought; consequently, students of rebellion have no real basis for selecting one means over another. The present article develops the logical and mathematical underpinnings of choosing one strategy, weighting measures of rebelliousness by group size, over the others in the historical case of the 1960's U.S. black riots. The resulting measure of “riot propensity” is then analyzed at the city level of analysis. In general, the findings comport with previous studies of the riots, r...