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Article: Adverse Living Conditions, Grievances, and Political Protest after Communism: The Example of East Germany [*].
- Article from:
- Social Forces
- Article date:
- September 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 University of North Carolina Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Abstract
Three aspects of living conditions are distinguished: a resource deficit such as unemployment, discontent with a resource deficit, and the perceived obligation of the state to provide resources. It is argued that these factors have direct effects on a set of "incentives" that, in turn, directly affect protest. Resource mobilization and opportunity structure theory suggest that resource deficits decrease protest, but after the collapse of communism it is plausible that they raise protest. These propositions are tested with 725 citizens of Leipzig in 1993. A major finding is that a resource deficit has an unexpected direct negative but a strong indirect ...