The importance of political context: Motives to participate in a protest before and after the labor reform in Spain (original) (raw)
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Drawing both on social movement studies and labour studies, this article investigates the kind of people who join trade union-staged marches during the current crisis, looking at the presence of (politicized) grievances, collective identity and the embeddedness of mobilization. Data were taken from surveys conducted during 13 marches organized by the main trade unions in five European countries. They show that participants in union-staged demonstrations in countries in which a corporatist model dominates and trade unions have a tradition of business unionism (Belgium and the Netherlands) are characterized by higher political trust, more moderate positions on the left– right continuum and stronger organizational ties. On the other hand, in countries in which unions are less institutionally recognized and with a tradition of oppositional unionism (Italy and Spain), participants in union-staged demonstrations are more mistrustful of politics, located more to the left and rely more upon informal social networks to mobilize. The United Kingdom falls between these two poles.
In recent decades protest participation has become one of the most widely accepted and practiced forms of citizen engagement in democratic countries. Many researchers argue that protest participation is crucial for consolidation and functioning of democracies, and past studies have shown that at the individual leve protest participation is associated with prodemocratic attitudes, though past research has rarely compared motivations behind protest participation in established and postcommunist European democracies. In addition, the majority of studies employed single-level analyses, not taking into account country-level characteristics, or vice versa. We investigated associations between macro-level country characteristics and single-level sociodemographic and political cultural variables (prodemocratic attitudes index used by Klingemann et al., 2006). Using multilevel modelling allowed us to examine simultaneously the effect of individual-level as well as group-level predictors of protest participation (signing petitions, joining in boycotts, and attending lawful demonstrations). We hypothesized that levels of socioeconomic development and communist past would prove to be the strongest macropredictors of levels of protest participation (Inglehart and Welzel, 2007), and that prodemocratic orientations positively affect protest participation, even when controlling for other individual and state characteristics. We employed the representative natiional samples of 2008 of wave of European Values Study. The results indicated that 1) higher levels of socioeconomic development were the only significant makro-predictor of protest participation, while countries’ GINI index of income inequality, continuous years as a democracy, postcommunist past and present levels of quality of democratic institutions (Freedom House scores) all proved non-significant. At the individual level prodemocratic attitudes had a positive effect on protest participation, even after controlling for other relevant characteristics. Among the latter, male gender, higher education, higher income and larger size of the residential settlement all had a significant positive effect, while higher age had a negative effect on protest participation. Finally, the participation–prodemocratic attitudes link was stronger in established democracies. Based on the study results authors conclude that institutions of representative democracy, political elites and policy makers should view protest behaviour as a democratic potential, since it is not only becoming increasingly popular and relevant form of expression of citizens’ voice in Europe, but because mainly the prodemocratic oriented public is most likely to protest.
This paper analyzes social representations and psychosocial factors related to collective action in the context of the massive protest movement of 2019 in Chile. A total of 262 individuals answered a comprehensive online survey that included measures of participation and repertoire of different forms of collective action, identification with protesters as well as with government, agreement with social movement grievances, collective efficacy, perceived emotional synchrony or collective effervescence, self trascendent emotions, beliefs about violence of social movement and police violence, and five open questions on images of demonstrators and police. Participation in October 2019 demonstrations were associated strongly to all previous variables like identification with demonstrators, perceived emotional synchrony in demonstrations, feeling social awe, elevation, moved and joy, disagreement with beliefs justifying police violence and agreement with beliefs on social movement use of violence. High level of psychosocial variables and participation were associated to a set of words elicited by stimuli such as images of police and demonstrators (justice, injustice, inequality, abuses, rights, bravery, dignity, hope, unity) that could be conceived off as positive social representation of demonstrators as just fighters. Low identification and non participation in mass movement was associated to a negative Le Bon style social representation of demonstrators related to chaos and violence.
How Do Political Opportunities Impact Protest Potential? A Multilevel Cross-national Assessment
International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 2023
This article tests the general explanatory power of political opportunity theory for cross-national variations in protest throughout the world, and considers how opportunities influence individual-level characteristics crucial for coalition-formation and campaigns. This study constructs a multilevel model of protest potential, using survey data from individuals across 43 countries, drawn from the fifth and sixth waves of the World Values Survey, combined with political, economic, and cultural factors measured for each country. While many individual factors predicted individuals' protest potential, a mixture of country-level factors-including select political opportunities-are of general importance. Country-level regime durability and empowerment rights moderated the effect of organization membership, social trust, and political ideology on protest, demonstrating how political opportunity interacts to enhance the impact of individual characteristics relevant to coalition-building and campaigns.
Union Activism in an Inclusive System of Industrial Relations: Evidence from a Spanish Case Study
British Journal of Industrial Relations, 2011
In this article we analyse the reasons for active trade union participation within the context of Spanish industrial relations. Spain represents a particularly interesting case as the unions' main activity, collective bargaining, is considered a public good. The present study is based on a representative survey of one region of the ‘Worker Commissions’ trade union and provides empirical evidence that union presence in the workplace has a significant influence on members' propensity for activism. Union presence in the workplace enhances collectivism and builds incentive for action in inclusive systems of industrial relations. By contrast, individualistic orientations and instrumental motives are of little relevance in the Spanish industrial relations context.
Supporting protest movements: The effect of the legitimacy of the claims
Past research has investigated the motivations behind support to protest actions by mainly focusing on the relationship between the perceptions of protest movements and support itself. The aim of the present research is to extend this research also by considering the qualitative content of the claims advanced by the protesters. We analyzed whether supporting a protest depends on the legitimacy of the advanced claim (i.e. in terms of adherence to democratic principles) or on the legitimacy attributed to that group. One hundred and eighty Italian citizens (45.9 % women; M age = 41.64, SD = 13.69) responded to an online questionnaire concerning a protest movement. The design included 2×2 conditions: non-threatening vs. threatening type of group and unbound vs. restricted protesters’ claims. The results showed that support given to the protest is overlooked when the group is perceived as more threatening. However, the perception of the protest group has no effect on value-oriented participants who instead focus on the claims. Estudios previos han investigado las motivaciones detrás del apoyo a las acciones de protesta, centrándose principalmente en la relación entre la percepción de los movimientos de protesta y lo apoyo. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue extender esta investigación, considerando también el contenido cualitativo de las reclamaciones presentadas por los manifestantes. Se analizó si el apoyo a una protesta depende de la legitimidad de la reclamación avanzada (en términos de adhesión a los principios democráticos) o en la legitimidad atribuida a ese grupo. Ciento chenta ciudadanos italianos (45.9% mujeres; edad M = 41.64, SD = 13.69) respondieron a un cuestionario online relativo a un movimiento de protesta. El diseño incluye 2 × 2 condiciones: tipo de grupo no amenazantes vs. amenazantes y reclamación avanzada dilatada vs. restringida. Los resultados mostraron que el apoyo a la protesta se descuida cuando el grupo se percibe como más amenazante. Sin embargo, la percepción del grupo de protesta no tuvo ningún efecto sobre los participantes orientados a los valores a que en su lugar se centraron en las reclamaciones.
Combining motivations and emotion: The motivational dynamics of protest participation
Revista de Psicolog& …, 2011
We conducted a study to investigate the motivational dynamics of protest participation. Previous research suggests that instrumental and identity motives together with group-based anger predict people's intentions to participate in protest. The present research combines these motives with ideology into a single model. So far, no study has tested such a model or attempted to assess the motives' relative weight. Our results replicated previous findings by showing that instrumentality, identity, and ideology together with group-based anger motivates people to participate in protest. Importantly, our study extended previous findings by showing that these factors account for variance in motivation among actual participants. More specifically, ideology appeared to be the strongest motivator of protest participation, followed by identity and instrumentality. Next to these main effects, we obtained interaction effects between the three motives and group-based anger, demonstrating the need for complex and sophisticated models.
In this work we look into the individuals' reasons that led Occupy protesters to participate in this movement. We interviewed Occupy participants in the UK and Spain. We wanted to find out if the reasons that lead them to participate are the same in both countries. The context of the country where the demonstration was held was taken into account, as well as the differences there may be in the reasons for participation if we consider whether they are occasional or regular participants in collective protest actions. Using a two-by-two design defined by country of demonstration and the history of mobilisation (occasional vs. regular), our results show important differences in both factors. The study contributes to the literature, highlighting the importance of analysing the context where the demonstration takes place and which motives must be underlined in order to attract participants to protests.
The social psychology of protest
"Social psychological research has taught us a lot about why people protest. This article provides a theoretical and empirical overview. Discussed are grievances, efficacy, identification, emotions and social embeddedness, followed by the most recent approaches, which combine these concepts into dual pathway models. Finally, two future directions are discussed: (1) to shed light on the paradox of persistent participation, and (2) to clarify how perceptions of sociopolitical context affects protest participation."