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"Understanding Urban Riots" published on by Oxford University Press.

The riots that took place in France in November 200S had causes both deep & recent. French immigration policies favoring "territorialization" have led many immigrants to face social exclusion based on ethnicity. Many youth whose families recently immigrated feel that the broader society has not accepted them. But it is important to remember that these youth do not want to change the Republican values. Rather, they wish to have them applied equally to all French citizens, regardless of race, religion, or country of origin. Most youth of immigrant origins did not participate in the riots & simply want to lead normal lives. Adapted from the source document.

My aim is to examine one particular mode of political participation: the urban riot. In the West African context its importance is enhanced by the fact that there exist few, if any, other ways in which the mass of the population can participate in the political process and seek to bring some influence to bear upon governments. For most of the time, in the majority of states in the region, constitutional mechanisms for influencing governments have been largely absent due to the prevailing climate of political authoritarianism. Only in the Gambia have competitive parties operated throughout the last 10 years, although a few other states (Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Senegal) have had this type of democratic system for part of the time. For the rest, single-party or military rule has held sway, and opportunities for influencing, or indeed replacing, governments through the ballot box have been marked by their absence. Authoritarianism has extended not only to opposition parties — or, in the case of the military, any political organisation — but also to autonomous or semi-independent pressure groups, which have in general been fairly weak, even where not banned altogether.

An examination of the relationship between riot incidence & changes in Ur expenditures & revenue, using 310 US cities of over 50,000 population as a data base. Cities were analyzed in terms of: (1) changes in expenditures considered relevant to the demands of blacks & whites, (2) four fiscal areas thought largely unrelated to either black or white demands, & (3) occurrence or nonoccurrence of riots. Results revealed greater increments in expenditures related to black & white demands in cities having riots as compared with those that did not, but the same difference did not appear in the other four expenditure areas. When structural variables were controlled, differences in police & fire expenditure increments remained, while differences in social welfare benefits were greatly reduced. This pattern of difference between riot & nonriot cities was not found to hold prior to 1965. Comparisons in expenditure gains were made among riot & nonriot cities having a variety of political characteristics (eg, political competitiveness, the presence of "reformed" political institutions) to ascertain the possible influence of political characteristics of the city on responsiveness to riots. 4 Tables. Modified HA.

Analyse städtischer Unruhen in Westafrika als die häufig einzige Möglichkeit der Bevölkerung, sich am politischen Prozeß zu beteiligen und Änderungen zu erzwingen. Häufigkeit, Ausmaß und Ursachen der Unruhen, Kennzeichnung der wichtigsten daran beteiligten Bevölkerungsgruppen. Nur wenige Unruhen waren wirksam im Hinblick auf das damit verfolgte Ziel. Andererseits haben jedoch aufrührerische Zustände dieser Art gerade in Westafrika mehrfach direkt oder indirekt zu einem Sturz der Regierung durch das Militär beigetragen. (DÜI-Hlb)