Student Research Projects

When It Goes Down: State Violence and Social Movements

Student Name(s)	Michael Haverly
Faculty Mentor(s)	Dr. Aubrey Westfall
Department	Political Science
Course	POLS 499

Abstract

This research project is looking at the relationships between social movements and the state's use of violence in response to those social movements. Based on the literature, I have developed two hypotheses that attempt to explain these violent responses by the state to social movements. The first hypothesis is that the type of government (authoritarian or democratic) has a direct relationship to the level and severity of violence used in response to social movements. The second hypothesis is that, based on the number of students involved in a social movement, the level of violence used by the state will increase along with the number of students in a social movement.