protest

 involves a threat of violence but that threat remains largely implicit such that the art of protesting remains legal and has a claim to legitimacy.

Protest involves a threat of violence, he argues, but that threat remains largely implicit such that the art of protesting remains legal and has a claim to legitimacy. Indeed, he suggests that protest 'harnesses aggressive impulses' and controls them, where violence gives them free reign. The consequence of this is that protest tends to have a greater political efficacy within the system. Violence is generally illegal and is deemed illegitimate. It therefore both invites criticism and becomes a focal point in its own right, diverting attention away from whatever issue provoked it. Protest, by contrast, insofar as it keeps the threat of violence veiled, is a legitimate act whose form is much less likely to detract from the content of the issues it is focused upon.

 harnesses aggressive impulses and controls them, and insofar as it keeps the threat of violence veiled, is a legitimate act whose form is much less likely to detract from the content of the issues it is focused upon.

Indeed, he suggests that protest 'harnesses aggressive impulses' and controls them, where violence gives them free reign. The consequence of this is that protest tends to have a greater political efficacy within the system. Violence is generally illegal and is deemed illegitimate. It therefore both invites criticism and becomes a focal point in its own right, diverting attention away from whatever issue provoked it. Protest, by contrast, insofar as it keeps the threat of violence veiled, is a legitimate act whose form is much less likely to detract from the content of the issues it is focused upon.

is an instrumental form of activity guided by a cost-benefit analysis. It is contrasted with violence which is an 'expressive' form of action in which actors have essentially thrown cost considerations to the winds).

Continuing this distinction, Eisinger argues that protest is an instrumental form of activity, guided by a cost'benefit analysis, where violence is an 'expressive' form of action in which 'actors . . . have essentially thrown cost considerations to the winds' (Eisinger 1973: 13). This cost'benefit notion, as we will see, is a ...

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