Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T01:06:04.387Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

David Moss
Get access

Extract

Deaths of sovereigns or political leaders are generally accompanied by dramatic representation and celebration of the political order over which they have presided. The circumstances of death, funeral rites and destination of the corpse (cremation, burial or public display) proclaim the value and necessity of the ideas embodied in the ruler's office. However practically deficient or scandalous any particular ruler's interpretation of that office, the activities which surround his death reaffirm the invulnerability of the transcendent order to any local or temporary individual failings. Sometimes, however, the circumstances of a sovereign's death can be appropriated by his opponents not merely to decree that death but to destroy the ideological underpinnings of the political system itself: the trials and executions of Charles i and Louis xvi were not simply the punishment of individuals for specific crimes but rather symbolic destructions of monarchy itself staged by Cromwell and the conventionnels (Walzer 1974). Such occasions have been rare. A radical political opposition can expect at most to intervene in the timing of the ruler's death, by assassination, but draw no benefit from this, since it is likely to be even more effective than peaceful death in stimulating public affirmation of the existing order.

Type
Comprendre Les Cas Extrêmes
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , December 1981 , pp. 265 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acquaviva, S. (ed.), Terrorismo e Guerriglia in Italia (Rome, Cittá Nuova, 1979).Google Scholar
Becker, A.L., Text-building, epistemology and aesthetics in Javanese shadow theatre, in Becker, A.L. & Yengoyan, A. (eds.), The Imagination of Reality (Norwood, N.J., Ablex, 1979), pp. 211–243.Google Scholar
Bell, J.B., A Time of Terror (New York, Basic Books, 1978).Google Scholar
Berlinguer, B., La Proposta Comunista, (Turin, Einaudi, 1975).Google Scholar
Bertini, B., Ricognizione sul nuovo terrorismo di destra e di sinistra, in Bbrtini, B., Franchi, P. & Spagnoli, U., Estremismo Terrorismo Ordine Democratico (Rome, Riuniti, 1978), pp. 11–43.Google Scholar
Bezucha, R., Masks of revolution, in Price, R. (ed.), Revolution and Reaction (London, Croom Helm, 1975) PP. 236–253.Google Scholar
Binns, C., Changing face of power: revolution and accommodation in the development of the Soviet ceremonial system (part I), Man (N.S.), XIV (1979) 4, 585–606.Google Scholar
Binns, C., Changing face of power: revolution and accommodation in the development of the Soviet ceremonial system (part II), Man (N.S.), XV (1980) 1, 170–187.Google Scholar
Bloch, M., Symbols, song, dance and features of articulation, Archives européennes de sociologie, XV (1974), 55–81.Google Scholar
Block, M. (ed.), Political Language and Oratory in Traditional Society, London, Academic Press, (1975).Google Scholar
Bocca, G. (ed.), Moro. Una tragedia italiana (Milan, Bompiani, 1978) [= 1978a].Google Scholar
Bocca, G., Il Terrorismo Italiano 1970–1978 (Milan, Rizzoli, 1978) [= 1978b].Google Scholar
Cacciari, M., Problemi teorici e politici dell'operaismo nei nuovi gruppi dal 1960 ad oggi, in D'Agostini, F. (ed.), Operaismo e Centrà Operaia (Rome, Riuniti, 1978).Google Scholar
Cohen, A., Drama and politics in the development of a London carnival, Man (N.S.), XV (1980) 1, 65–87.Google Scholar
Colie, R., Paradoxia Epidemica (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1966).Google Scholar
Collin, R., The De Lorenzo Gambit: the Italian coup manqué of 1964 (London, Sage, 1976).Google Scholar
Coppola, A., Moro (Milan, Feltrinelli, 1976).Google Scholar
Debray, R., The Revolution on Trial (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1978).Google Scholar
Eco, U., The Role of the Reader (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1979).Google Scholar
Eco, U. & Violi, P., La controinformazione, in Castronovo, V. & Tranfaglia, N. (eds.), La Stampa Italiana del Neocapitalismo (Bari, Laterza, 1976), pp. 97–172.Google Scholar
Ferrarotti, F., Alle Radici delta Violenza (Milan, Rizzoli, 1978).Google Scholar
Galleni, M., Quattro mesi di attività terroristica, Rinascita, no. 19 (1978), 16–17.Google Scholar
Goody, E., Towards a theory of questions, in Goody, E. (ed.), Questions and Politeness (Cambridge, C.U.P., 1978).Google Scholar
Graziano, L. & Tarrow, S. (eds), La Crisi Italiana (Turin, Einaudi, 1979).Google Scholar
Hamnett, I., Ambiguity, classification and change: the function of riddles, Man (N.S.), II (1967) 2–3, 379–392.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, E., Technology and anonymity, in di Biase, B. (ed.), Terrorism Today in Italy and Western Europe (Sydney, Cicolo G. Di Vittorio, 1978).Google Scholar
Kapferer, B., Ritual process and the transformation of context, Social Analysis, I (1979). 3–19.Google Scholar
Katz, R., Days of Wrath: the public agony of Aldo Moro (London, Granada, 1980).Google Scholar
Labrousse, A., The Tupamaros (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1973).Google Scholar
Lafontaine, J., The power of rights, Man (N.S.), XII (1977) 3–4, 421–437.Google Scholar
Lane, C., Ritual and ceremony in contemporary Soviet society, Sociological Review, XXVII (1979), 253–278.Google Scholar
Laqueur, W., Terrorism (London, Sphere, 1978).Google Scholar
Lukes, S., Political ritual and social integration, Sociology, IX (1975), 289–308. Reprinted in S. Lukes, Essays in Social Theory (London, Macmillan, 1977), ch. III.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinelli, A. & Pasquino, G. (eds.), La Politico nell'Italia che Cambia (Milan, Feltrinelli, 1978).Google Scholar
Minucci, A., Terrorismo e Crisi Italiana (Rome, Riuniti, 1978).Google Scholar
Moohehead, C., Fortune's Hostages, Kidnapping in the world today (London, Hamish Hamilton, 1980).Google Scholar
Moro, A., L'Intelligenza e gli Avvenimenti (Milan, Garzanti, 1979).Google Scholar
Naar, J., Rise in anti-capitalist terrorism, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, XXIX (1980), 82.Google Scholar
Orgel, S., The Illusion of Power. Political theatre in the English Renaissance (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1975).Google Scholar
Parkin, D., The creativity of abuse, Man (N.S.), XV (1980) 1, 45–64.Google Scholar
Parkin, F., Marxism and Class Theory (London, Macmillan, 1979).Google Scholar
Pizzorno, A., I ceti medi nei meccanismi del consenso, in Cavazza, F. & Graubard, S. (eds.), Il Caso Italiano (Milan, Garzanti, 1974).Google Scholar
Price, E., The strategy and tactics of revolutionary terrorism, Comparative Studies in Society and History, XIX (1977), 52–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pridham, G., The Italian Christian Democrats after Moro: crisis or compromise, Western European Politics, II (1979), 69–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skorupski, J., Symbol and Theory (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1976).Google Scholar
Rosso, Soccorso, Brigate Rosse (Milan, Feltrinelli, 1976).Google Scholar
Tarrow, S., Italy: crisis, crises or transition, Western European Politics, II (1979), 166–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tessandori, V., BR: Imputazione Banda Armata (Milan, Garzanti, 1977).Google Scholar
Thornton, T.P., Terror as a weapon of political agitation, in Eckstein, H. (ed.), Internal War (New York, Free Press, 1964).Google Scholar
Tonkin, E., Masks and powers, Man (N.S.), XIV (1979) 2, 237–248.Google Scholar
Vogt, E. & Abel, S., On political rituals in contemporary Mexico, in Moore, S.F. & Myerhoff, B. (eds.), Secular Ritual (Amsterdam, Van Gorcum, 1977).Google Scholar
Walzer, M., Regicide and Revolution (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1974).Google Scholar