There are about 1.5 instances of political unrest per country on average.
The more governments cut expenditure, the higher the number of incidents.
If expenditure is cut by 1% of GDP, the number of incidents increases by a third.
In 2011, an IMF study of 120 countries between 1970 and 2007 found a 10% increase in food prices doubles the number of anti-government protests.
A 1994 paper by Alesina and Perotti found that unrest often starts when a wealthy middle-class is weakened and rising expectations are dashed
