Democracy and Disorder: Protest and Politics in Italy, 1965-1975

by Sidney Tarrow

This is a study of the cycle of protest that swept across Italy from the late 1960s through the early 1970s. Using a variety of newspaper, archival, and interview materials, and combining quantitative time-series techniques with historical and ideological analyses, Tarrow shows how protest
spread from the student and worker movements to virtually every sector of Italian society, and gave rise to "extraparliamentary" groups, violence, and finally, a return to traditional political patterns. Despite the violence and disorder, Tarrow demonstrates that the major result of the cycle was to
increase the repertoire of participation and to contribute to a consolidation of Italian democracy.

Hardcover

First published September 28, 1989

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting data and historic details, but unfortunately Tarrow's dedication to bourgeouis history lets him down. His insistence on the Italian state's "broadening of democracy" in Italy as opposed to repression is historically inaccurate and offensive to the 25,000 militants in the movements he described who ended up arrested during the state's 7 April crackdowns. Similarly, Tarrow's repeated affirmations that revolutionary outcomes are impossible limit the horizon of his study and lead to him making sweeping generalisations when concluding otherwise interesting and serious analysis. Finally, his critique of "history from below" and proclamation of the lack of grassroots sources for studying movement's such as that of operaismo and autonomia comes across as cynical and fairly naive. It seems much more likely that the oppostite is true - that widespread print cultures that emerged during these movements means that there are few movements so well documented by their participants as those in post-war Italy.