Civil Compliance and "Political Luddism": Explaining Variance in Social Unrest During Crisis in Ireland and Greece. (November 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pappas, Takis S.; O'Malley, Eoin
• Other Names: Zamora-Kapoor Anna guest-editor.; Coller Xavier guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: American behavioral scientist. Volume 58:Number 12(2014:Dec.)
• Page Start: 1592
• Page End: 1613
• Publication Date: 2014-11
• Subjects: civil society -- social unrest -- Greece -- Ireland -- protest -- economic crisis; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/0002764214534663
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7642

Abstract

When badly hit by the same global financial and economic crisis in the early 2000s, the Irish and the Greek societies reacted in quite different ways. Whereas Ireland remained largely acquiescent and displayed a high degree of civil compliance, Greeks took massively to the streets using violence and attacking specifically the state and the state personnel, a phenomenon we refer to as "political Luddism." It is shown that the two countries are quite similar in terms of their economic condition, cultural background, social composition, ideological profiling, and party system dynamics, among other factors. What, then, explains the two countries' dissimilar reactions to crisis? Through a detailed analysis of the cases, the article offers evidence that the most compelling explanation relates to the varying ability of the Greek and Irish states to continue providing basic public goods and other state-related services to their respective societies.