NATIONAL REVIVALS AND VIOLENCE

Micro factors that induce violent confrontations amidst national reviv al movements are identified. These factors include the nature of local social structures, tipping phenomena, and fortuitous events that set off action/reaction cycles. They are shown to be better explanations t han reigning macro theories to account for the peaceful nationalist re vival in Catalonia in contrast to the violent one in the Basque Countr y. A robustness test for the micro factors succeeds in differentiating levels of violence in the politics of separation from the Soviet Unio n in the Ukraine and Georgia.