ABSTRACT
The rate-payer unrest casts light on the theoretical debate surrounding the conditions for the emergence of mass insurgency, revolving around the roles of social discontent and political organization in the mobilization of mass protest. For social discontent theorists like Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, mass insurgency follows the opportunity created by a profound disruption in the web of social influences "the regulatory controls inherent in the structure of institutional life" which legitimates the existing balance of political power. The triggering effect of termination thus rested upon the combined impact of the factors in establishing the conditions pointing toward insurgency. The significance of the observation rests with the idea that prevailing economic adversity only established basic conditions for mass insurgency, and that the initiative process provided the opportunity for broadly defining the social significance of these conditions. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
