Clandestine Political Violence compares four types of clandestine political violence: left-wing (in Italy and Germany), right-wing (in Italy), ethnonationalist (in Spain) and religious fundamentalist (in Islamist clandestine organizations). Oriented toward theory building, Della Porta develops her own definition of clandestine political violence. Building on the most recent developments in social movement studies, Della Porta proposes an original interpretative model. Using a unique research design, she singles out some common causal mechanisms at the onset, during the persistence and at the demise of clandestine political violence. The development of the phenomenon is located within the interactions among social movements, countermovements and the state. She pays particular attention to the ways different actors cognitively construct the reality they act upon. Based on original empirical research as well as existing research in many languages, this book is rich in empirical evidence on some of the most crucial cases of clandestine political violence.

This volume compares four types of clandestine political violence: left-wing, right-wing, ethnonationalist and religious fundamentalist.

About the Author
Donatella Della Porta is a professor of sociology at the European University Institute (EUI) and a professor of political science at the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane. She was the 2011 recipient of the Mattei Dogan Prize for distinguished achievements in the field of political sociology. She has launched both the Consortium on Social Movement Studies at the EUI and the 'Mobilizing for Democracy' project with funding from the European Research Council. She is co-editor of European Political Science Review. Her previous publications with Cambridge University Press are Meeting Democracy (edited with Dieter Rucht, 2012), Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences (edited with Michael Keating, 2008) and Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State (1995).

Reviews
'Della Porta, one of the foremost scholars of social movements, turns her attention in this new work to the question of why groups resort to terrorism, or what she terms clandestine political violence ... this is a necessary addition to any academic collection on terrorism, political violence or social movements. Summing up: highly recommended.' A. G. Reiter, Choice



Book Information
ISBN 9780521146166
Author Donatella della Porta
Format Paperback
Page Count 338
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 470g
Dimensions(mm) 228mm * 152mm * 18mm