NCJ Number
119371
Date Published
1989
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This study presents and analyzes information on all kinds of open political conflict in 87 of the world's largest nations and colonies from 1961 through 1970.
Abstract
Information was obtained primarily from the New York Times and supplemented by information from specialized regional news sources. More than 2,200 episodes of conflict were identified, counting campaigns of demonstrations, riots, or terrorism over related issues as single "episodes." For each episode, information was systematically recorded on the kinds of dissident groups involved, the approximate number of people who participated, their grievance, whom they acted against, how long the episode lasted, the severity of governmental response, and indicators of the intensity of conflict (such as numbers of casualties and arrests). The United States experienced more widespread and intense civil conflict during the 1960's than all but a few of the other Western democracies, but political violence in America was far less extensive and less disruptive than violence in a substantial number of non-Western nations. The most important general conclusion suggested by the evidence is that civil strife in the United States is different in degree but not in kind from strife in other Western nations. 24 notes, 7 tables.