Hardship and Collective Violence in France, 1830 to 1960

We challenge the standard argument whach treats collective violence as an expression of the dissatisfactions felt by populations experiencing hardship after periods of relative well-being.We propose an alternative explanation in which struggles for political power are the central features.Tfme-series analysis of year-to-year fluctuations of collective violence in France from 1830 through 1960 fail to yield significant results for a variety of models designed to represent major arguments in the recent literature stressing the effects of short-term hardship.Similar analyses representing the effects of governmental repression yield results corresponding to our .expectations.So far we have not been able to incorporate adequate measurements of the other major powerstruggle.variablesinto the time-series analysis.But we take the results of this preliminary investigation as a warrant to continue in that direct ion.