Ted Robert Gurr

Why Men Rebel was first published in 1970 after a decade of political violence across the world. Forty years later, serious conflicts continue in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Ted Robert Gurr reintroduces us to his landmark work, putting it in context with the research it influenced as well as world events. Why Men Rebel remains highly relevant to today's violent and unstable world with its holistic, people-based understanding of the causes of political protest and rebellion. With its close eye on the politics of group identity, this book provides new insight into contemporary security challenges.

Picking up where MINORITIES AT RISK left off, PEOPLES VERSUS STATES offers an expanded and updated perspective on ethnic and nationalist conflict throughout the world, as well as efforts to manage it. Ted Gurr surveys the behavior of 275 politically active ethnic groups during the 1990s and pinpoints the factors that encourage the assertion of ethnic identities. Whereas his highly acclaimed 1993 book presented a disturbing picture of spreading ethnic violence, this volume documents a pronounced decline since the early 1990sa decline attributable, in part at least, to many states abandoning strategies of assimilation and control in favor of policies of pluralism and accommodation. Nonetheless, Gurr identifies some ninety groups as being at significant risk of conflict and repression in the early 21st century. And he cautions that the emerging global regime of principles and strategies governing relations between communal groups and states is far from perfect or universally effective.

The turmoil in Yugoslavia, the rebellions of the Kurds and Shi’is in Iraq, the ongoing struggle in South Africa―ethnic conflict continues unabated in many areas of the world.To help us understand the persistence of such conflict, this pioneering work analyzes ethnopolitical conflict in every region of the globe. An ambitious and unprecedented effort, it provides a comprehensive survey of 233 politically active communal groups, plus in-depth assessments of ethnic tensions in the western democracies, the former Soviet bloc, the Middle East, and Africa.By identifying these groups and examining their disadvantages and grievances, Minorities at Risk attempts to explain why disadvantaged groups mobilize, and it evaluates strategies that have successfully reduced ethnic conflict in the past, including autonomy, pluralism, and power sharing.This provocative and well-written volume challenges conventional wisdom and raises the discussion about a widespread but little-understood phenomenon to a higher level.

This volume comprises key essays by Ted Robert Gurr on the causes and consequences of organized political protest and rebellion, its outcomes and strategies for conflict management. From the Castro-inspired revolutionary movements of Latin America in the 1960s to Yugoslavia’s dissolution in ethnonational wars of the 1990s, and the popular revolts of the Arab Spring, millions of people have risked their lives by participating in protests and rebellions. Based on half a century of theorizing and social science research, this book brings together Gurr’s extensive knowledge and addresses the key questions surrounding this - What grievances, hopes and hatreds motivated the protesters and rebels? - What did they gain that might have offset myriad deaths and devastation? - How effective are protest movements as alternatives to rebellions and terrorism? -What public and international responses lead away from violence and toward reforms? The essays in the volume are updated and are organized around the evolving themes of the author's research, including theoretical arguments, interpretations and references to the evidence developed in his empirical research and case studies. The concluding essays bring theory and evidence to bear on the past and future of political violence in Africa. This book will be of much interest to student of rebellion, political violence, conflict studies, security studies and IR.

Many of the oldest and largest Western cities today are undergoing massive economic decline. The State and the City deals with a key issue in the political economy of cities—the role of the state. Ted Robert Gurr and Desmond S. King argue that theoreticians from both the left and the right have underestimated the significance of state action for cities. Grounding theory in empirical evidence, they argue that policies of the local and national state have a major impact on urban well-being.Gurr and King's analysis assumes modern states have their own interests, institutional momentum, and the capacity to act with relative autonomy. Their historically based analysis begins with an account of the evolution of the Western state's interest in the viability of cities since the industrial revolution. Their agument extends to the local level, examining the nature of the local state and its autonomy from national political and economic forces.Using cross-national evidence, Gurr and King examine specific problems of urban policy in the United States and Britain. In the United States, for example, they show how the dramatic increases in federal assistance to cities in the 1930s and the 1960s were made in response to urban crises, which simultaneously threatened national interests and offered opportunities for federal expansion of power. As a result, national and local states now play significant material and regulatory roles that can have as much impact on cities as all private economic activities.A comparative analysis of thirteen American cities reflects the range and impact of the state's activities at the urban level. Boston, they argue, has become the archetypical postindustrial public half of its population and personal income are directly dependent on government spending. While Gurr and King are careful to delineate the limits to the extent and effectiveness of state intervention, they conclude that these limits are much broader than formerly thought. Ultimately, their evidence suggests that the continued decline of most of the old industrial cities is the result of public decisions to allow their economic fate to be determined in the private sector.

Book by Gurr, Ted Robert, McClelland, Muriel

Book by Gurr, Ted Robert

′The Politics of Crime and Conflict is a significant contribution to the comparative study of criminal justice. Its strengths lie in the authors′ rigorous scholarly analysis and attention to detail; the utility of the conceptual framework as an ordering device for the case studies; the often fresh and insightful conclusions the authors draw from their analysis of the diverse body of data they present; and the valuable heuristic contribution of Prof. Gurr′s theoretical model of urban disorder. Finally, the study is well-written and remarkably free from jargon...′ -- Policy Studies Journal, Vol 6 No 3, Spring 1978 ′...one can only praise and applaud these authors′ efforts to raise the study of urban crime and repression from