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In human societies collective decisions can be reached as a result of three different mechanisms (or combinations thereof): by talking, by voting or by fighting.

The politics of participation involves all three forms. We endorse talking and voting because they are activities based on peaceful and reasoned arguments, and we condemn violence because we know that might is not right. The ideal is peaceable decision-making, but as sociologists and political scientists we must acknowledge that occasionally–if options are limited–people resort to violence–even in democratic societies. It is not only among states that ‘war is the continuation of politics by other means’, as Clausewitz famously observed in On War. This book is devoted to an analysis of talking, voting and fighting among citizens, in an attempt to understand why and when ordinary people engage in these activities or combinations of them. It might be a good …