Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-sjtt6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T08:23:40.610Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

State responses to ‘Ethnic Riots’ in liberal democracies: evidence from Western Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2010

Erik Bleich ,
Carolina Caeiro  and
Sarah Luehrman
Erik Bleich*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 05753, USA
Carolina Caeiro*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Universidad Católica de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina
Sarah Luehrman*
Affiliation:
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
*
* E-mail: ebleich@middlebury.edu, carolina.caeiro@gmail.com, sarah.luehrman@gmail.com
* E-mail: ebleich@middlebury.edu, carolina.caeiro@gmail.com, sarah.luehrman@gmail.com
* E-mail: ebleich@middlebury.edu, carolina.caeiro@gmail.com, sarah.luehrman@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The study of ethnic riots has a substantial pedigree in the social sciences, but so far there has been no systematic attempt to unify insights from scholars working on different areas of the world, nor has there been any extensive application of existing knowledge to the study of Western Europe. We address these two lacunae by drawing on contemporary scholarship to generate testable hypotheses about state responses to ethnic riots in liberal democracies, and by conducting a preliminary test of these hypotheses on four controlled comparison cases from Britain and France. Our cases reveal that states employ a relatively even balance of repression and accommodation in keeping with the social control perspective, but that the precise balance is affected by the electoral incentives of the party in power. This evidence suggests the external validity of findings by Fording (2001) – who emphasizes the significance of social control in the American context – and Wilkinson (2004) – who stresses the importance of electoral incentives in the Indian environment – but it implies that these separate insights may be more powerful in combination. Our study also demonstrates the limitations of perspectives that predict either simple repression or accommodation of rioters, and of those that emphasize distinctive national responses to riots.

Keywords

riotpolitical violenceBritainFranceEurope
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , July 2010 , pp. 269 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © European Consortium for Political Research 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abu-Lughod, J.L. (2007), Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Albritton, R.B. (1979), ‘Social amelioration through mass insurgency? A reexamination of the Piven and Cloward Thesis’, American Political Science Review 73(4): 1003–1011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagguley, P.Hussain, Y. (2006), ‘Conflict and cohesion: official constructions of ‘Community’ around the 2001 riots in Britain’, Critical Studies 28(1): 347–365.Google Scholar
Benyon, J. (ed.) (1984), Scarman and After: Essays Reflecting on Lord Scarman’s Report, the Riots and Their Aftermath, Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Body-Gendrot, S. (2000), The Social Control of Cities? A Comparative Perspective, Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Body-Gendrot, S.Wihtol de Wenden, C. (2007), Sortir des Banlieues: Pour en Finir avec la Tyrannie des Territoires, Paris: Éditions AutrementFrontières.Google Scholar
Bonelli, L. (2008), La France a Peur: Une Histoire Sociale de l’“Insécurité”, Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Bradford University (2002), Bradford: One Year on – Breaking the Silences, Bradford: University of Bradford.Google Scholar
Bridges, L.Bunyan, T. (1983), ‘Britain’s new urban policing strategy: the police and criminal evidence bill in context’, Journal of Law and Society 10(1): 85–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bujra, J.Pearce, J. (2009), ‘Police on the line: between control and correctness in multi-ethnic contexts of urban unrest’, in D. Waddington, F. Jobard and M. King (eds), Rioting in the UK and France: A Comparative Analysis, Cullompton: Willan, pp. 56–69.Google Scholar
Button, J.W. (1978), Black Violence: Political Impact of the 1960s Riots, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cantle, T. (2001), Community Cohesion: A Report of the Independent Review Team, London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Dancygier, R. (2007), Immigration and Conflict, Ph.D. dissertation. New Haven: Political Science Department, Yale University.Google Scholar
Davenport, C. (2000), ‘Introduction’, in C. Davenport (ed.), Paths to State Repression: Human Rights Violations and Contentious Politics, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 1–24.Google Scholar
Delarue, J.-M. (1993), ‘La Politique de la Ville’, Regards sur l’Actualité 196: 3–17.Google Scholar
Delebarre, M. (1993), Le Temps des Villes, Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
della Porta, D. (2006), Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State: A Comparative Analysis of Italy and Germany, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
della Porta, D.Reiter, H. (eds) (1998), Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Denham, J. (2001), Building Cohesive Communities: A Report of the Ministerial Group on Public Order and Community Cohesion, London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Dikeç, M. (2007), Badlands of the Republic: Space, Politics and Urban Policy, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Earl, J. (2003), ‘Tanks, tear gas, and taxes: toward a theory of movement repression’, Sociological Theory 21(1): 44–68.Google Scholar
Fording, R.C. (1997), ‘The conditional effect of violence as a political tactic: mass insurgency, welfare generosity, and electoral context in the American States’, American Journal of Political Science 41(1): 1–29.Google Scholar
Fording, R.C. (2001), ‘The political response to black insurgency: a critical test of competing theories of the state’, American Political Science Review 95(1): 115–130.Google Scholar
Gale, D. (1996), Understanding Urban Unrest: From Reverend King to Rodney King, Thousand Oaks: Sage.Google Scholar
Gamson, W.A. (1975), The Strategy of Social Protest, Homewood, Illinois: Dorsey Press.Google Scholar
Gilje, P.A. (1996), Rioting in America, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Glazer, N.Young, K. (1983), ‘Ethnic pluralism and public policy’, Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 36(5): 8–25.Google Scholar
Goldstone, J.A. (2003), ‘Introduction: bridging institutionalized and noninstitutionalized politics’, in J. A. Goldstone (ed.), States, Parties and Social Movements, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–24.Google Scholar
Great Britain: Home Office (2002), Secure Borders, Safe Haven: Integration with Diversity in Modern Britain, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Great Britain: Office for National Statistics (2004), Census 2001: Key Statistics for Urban Areas in England and Wales, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Gurr, T.R. (1970), Why Men Rebel, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Halle, D.Rafter, K. (2003), ‘Riots in New York and Los Angeles: 1935–2002’, in D. Halle (ed.), New York & Los Angeles: Politics, Society, and Culture: A Comparative View, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 341–366.Google Scholar
Heseltine, M. (1983), Reviving the Inner Cities, London: Conservative Political Centre.Google Scholar
Heseltine, M. (2000), Life in the Jungle: My Autobiography, London: Hodder & Stoughton.Google Scholar
Hicks, A.Swank, D.H. (1983), ‘Civil disorder, relief mobilization, and AFDC caseloads: a reexamination of the Piven and Cloward Thesis’, American Journal of Political Science 27(4): 695–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, D.L. (2001), The Deadly Ethnic Riot, Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hussain, Y.Bagguley, P. (2009), ‘The Bradford ‘Riot’ of 2001: the diversity of action’, in D. Waddington, F. Jobard and M. King (eds), Rioting in the UK and France: A Comparative Analysis, Cullompton: Willan, pp. 71–80.Google Scholar
Isaac, L.Kelly, W.R. (1981), ‘Racial insurgency, the state, and welfare expansion: local and national level evidence from the Postwar United States’, The American Journal of Sociology 86(6): 1348–1386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janowitz, M. (1968), Social Control of Escalated Riots, Chicago: The University of Chicago Center for Policy Study.Google Scholar
Jobard, F. (2009), ‘An overview of French Riots, 1981–2004’, in D. Waddington, F. Jobard and M. King (eds), Rioting in the UK and France: A Comparative Analysis, Cullompton: Willan, pp. 27–38.Google Scholar
John, P. (2006), ‘Explaining policy change: the impact of the media, public opinion and political violence on urban budgets in England’, Journal of European Public Policy 13(7): 1053–1068.Google Scholar
Joly, D. (2007), L’Émeute: Ce que la France peut apprendre du Royaume-Uni, Paris: Denoël.Google Scholar
Karapin, R. (2000), ‘Major anti-minority riots and national legislative campaigns against immigrants in Britain and Germany’, in R. Koopmans and P. Statham (eds), Challenging Immigration and Ethnic Relations Politics: Comparative European Perspectives, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 312–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriesi, H., Koopmans, R., Duyvendak, J.W.Giugni, M. (1995), New Social Movements in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Lapeyronnie, D. (2006), ‘Les Emeutes Urbaines en France, Grande-Bretagne et aux Etats-Unis’, Regards sur l’Actualité 319: 5–14.Google Scholar
Lieberman, E.S. (2005), ‘Nested analysis as a mixed-method strategy for comparative research’, American Political Science Review 99(3): 435–452.Google Scholar
McGhee, D. (2003), ‘Moving to ‘Our’ common ground – a critical examination of community cohesion discourse in twenty-first century Britain’, The Sociological Review 51(3): 376–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McPhail, C.McCarthy, J.D. (2005), ‘Protest mobilization, protest repression, and their interaction’, in C. Davenport, H. Johnston and C. Mueller (eds), Repression and Mobilization, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3–32.Google Scholar
Oliver, P.E.Myers, D.J. (2003), ‘The coevolution of social movements’, Mobilization 8(1): 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ouseley, H. (2001), Community Pride, Not Prejudice: Making Diversity Work in Bradford, Bradford: Bradford Vision.Google Scholar
Piven, F.F.Cloward, R.A. (1971), Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare, New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Piven, F.F.Cloward, R.A. (1979), Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail, New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Roché, S. (2006), Le Frisson de l’Emeute: Violence Urbaine et Banlieues, Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Roché, S. (2007), ‘Criminal justice policy in France: illusions of severity’, in M. Tonry (ed.), Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 471–550.Google Scholar
Roy, B. (1994), Some Trouble with Cows: Making Sense of Social Conflict, Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Scarman, L. (1986), The Scarman Report: The Brixton Disorders 10–12 April 1981, London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Schneider, C.L. (2008), ‘Police power and race riots in Paris’, Politics and Society 36(1): 133–159.Google Scholar
Schram, S.F.Turbett, J.P. (1983), ‘The welfare explosion: mass society versus social control’, Social Service Review 57: 614–625.Google Scholar
Tarrow, S. (1998), Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics, 2nd edn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thatcher, M. (1993), The Downing Street Years, New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Thomas, P. (2009), ‘From petrol bombs to performance indicators: the 2001 riots and the emergence of “Community Cohesion” ’, in D. Waddington, F. Jobard and M. King (eds), Rioting in the UK and France: A Comparative Analysis, Cullompton: Willan, pp. 81–93.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. (1978), From Mobilization to Revolution, New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. (2003), The Politics of Collective Violence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tissot, S. (2007), L’État et les Quartiers: Genèse d’une Catégorie de l’Action Publique, Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Varshney, A. (2002), Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wacquant, L. (2008), Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Waddington, D., Jobard, F.King, M. (eds) (2009a), Rioting in the UK and France: A Comparative Analysis, Cullompton: Willan.Google Scholar
Waddington, D., King, M.Jobard, F. (2009b), ‘Introduction and overview: the British and French riots’, in D. Waddington, F. Jobard and M. King (eds), Rioting in the UK and France: A Comparative Analysis, Cullompton: Willan, pp. 3–12.Google Scholar
Waddington, D.P. (2007), Policing Public Disorder: Theory and Practice, Cullompton: Willan Publishing.Google Scholar
Welch, S. (1975), ‘The impact of urban riots on urban expenditures’, American Journal of Political Science 19(4): 741–760.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, S.I. (2004), Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, S.I. (2009), ‘Riots’, Annual Review of Political Science 12: 329–343.Google Scholar