Explaining Dissent: A Comparative Study on How Political Culture and Socialization Account for Disparate Levels of Political Violence in Protest

Conventional theory suggests that the level of political violence a state experiences in protest directly correlates to the government structure of the state; this school of thought expects liberal democracies to be relatively peaceful while authoritarian states are expected to have high levels of violence. This study aims to counter this belief and instead explores the relationship that socialization and the political culture of a state have on political violence. Using comparative analyses of four case studies – looking at Iran, the United States, France, and Russia within these cases – my research tests models created for this thesis that allow for observations to be made about political violence. My results indicate that neither socialization, political culture, nor the government structure of a state can be solely linked to the level of political violence in a state. Rather, it is a combination of all these elements and much more.