Why Men Rebel

Gurr (1970) bases his contention that material deprivation is a prerequisite to collective violence by creating a composite typology of "welfare values." These values relate to physical well-being and self-realization. Welfare values are the basic needs which are the most meaningful to human beings: "They include the physical goods of life--food, shelter, health services, and physical comforts--and the development and use of physical and mental abilities" (Gurr, 1970, p. 25). People require a basic level of economic goods to support their welfare needs. Gurr (1970) claims that people are particularly sensitive to declines in economic goods, especially those segments of society that are already living close to the proverbial edge, "When economic values are inflexible and

. . .
957) confined his study to small or mid-sized cities, mostly located in the eastern or southern portion of the United States. These cities included communities like Northhampton, Massachusetts; Norwalk, Connecticut; Athens, Tennessee; Scarsdale, New York; and Milford, Delaware. Only one California city (Pasadena) was mentioned. Coleman (1957) implied that large cities are characterized by mass apathy, "Thus, in the large cities, involvement in controversy is usually least widespread, often confined to a few activists" (p. 3). According to Coleman (1957), controversies based on economic issues are generally experienced in towns in which residents both live and work. In the author's words, "In towns which do not constitute an economic unit, towns where men live but do not work . . . controversies set off by economically related incidents seem to be less frequent and less intense" (Coleman, 1957, p. 6). A notable exception to this claim are western cities like San Francisco, in which the economic interests of major corporations clash with the aesthetic sensibilities of widespread portions of the community. During the 1980s, when San Francisco was experiencing unprecedented growth, residents came out in force to place limit
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Beals Siegel, San Francisco, Rodney King, Simi Valley, Ted Gurr, James Coleman, According Coleman, Bernard Siegel, Los Angeles, Delaware California, gurr 1970, beals siegel 1966, beals siegel, coleman 1957, siegel 1966, san francisco, collective violence, community conflict, rodney king, relative deprivation, king verdict, cities san francisco, ineffective predicting propensity, divisiveness social conflict, maintaining status quo,
Approximate Word count = 1649
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Why Men Rebel