Comparing protests and demonstrators in times of austerity: regular and occasional protesters in universalistic and particularistic mobilisations (original) (raw)
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https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-786X20160000039002 An important wave of anti-austerity protests has swept across Western Europe in recent years. We can thus distinguish between three different types of protest occurring in Western Europe recently: “old” issue protests, relating to the trade union and labor movement; “new” issue protests, relating to culture and identity issues; anti-austerity protests, emerging directly in reaction to austerity measures and cuts enacted in the current period. Following previous literature, we hypothesize that anti-austerity protests have attracted a new constituency to the streets and that they will be different from both “old” and “new” protests in terms of their social composition, value orientations, and action repertoires. We expect anti-austerity protesters to be on the whole younger, and in more precarious working conditions, to be more concerned with economic over social issues, but also to be considerably less institutionalized and embedded in organizational networks, and to have fewer experiences of previous extra-institutional participation. We test these hypotheses by analyzing a unique and novel dataset containing data from over 10,000 protestors from 72 demonstrations (2009–2013). Our results lend broad support to our hypotheses with the exception of the idea that “precarity” forms a new social base for anti-austerity protests.
Do Issues Matter? Anti-Austerity Protests’ Composition, Values, and Action Repertoires Compared
Protest, Social Movements and Global Democracy Since 2011: New Perspectives, 2016
An important wave of anti-austerity protests has swept across Western Europe in recent years. We can thus distinguish between three different types of protest occurring in Western Europe recently: "old" issue protests, relating to the trade union and labor movement; "new" issue protests, relating to culture and identity issues; anti-austerity protests, emerging directly in reaction to austerity measures and cuts enacted in the current period. Following previous literature, we hypothesize that anti-austerity protests have attracted a new constituency to the streets and that they will be different from both "old" and "new" protests in terms of their social composition, value orientations, and action repertoires. We expect anti-austerity protesters to be on the whole younger, and in more precarious working conditions, to be more concerned with
Acta Politica, 2019
To what extent does the economic crisis affect support for political protest? Since the outburst of the financial crisis in 2008 many protests have been mobilized against national governments and their austerity policies. In some countries, these actions were described in the media as having little support among the general public, while elsewhere these actions enjoyed significant public support. Surprisingly little scholarly work has examined this variation. We fill this research gap by investigating who approves of austerity protests, how bystanders' attitudes differ from the activists' approval of protests and how repertoires relate to the approval of austerity protests. The analysis uses original survey data from nine European countries affected by the recent economic crisis at varying degrees and demonstrates that protest experience, both at the country and individual level, relates to approval of anti-austerity protests. The severity of economic crisis increases is positively related to protest approval in general terms, but there are differences depending on the type of grievances and which forms of austerity protests are considered.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12153 The economic crisis that started in 2008 has negatively affected European nations to different degrees. The sudden rise in demonstrations particularly in those countries most hard hit by the crisis suggests that grievance theories, dismissed in favour of resource-based models since the 1970s, might have a role to play in explaining protest behaviour. While most previous studies have tested these theories at the individual or contextual levels, it is likely that mechanisms at both levels are interrelated. To fill this lacuna, this article examines the ways in which individual-level grievances interact with macro-level factors to impact on protest behaviour. In particular, it examines whether the impact of individual subjective feelings of deprivation is conditional on contextual macroeconomic and policy factors. It is found that while individual-level relative deprivation has a direct effect on the propensity to have protested in the last year, this effect is greater under certain macroeconomic and political conditions. Both significant results for the cross-level interactions are interpreted in terms of their role for opening up political opportunities for protest among those who feel they have been most deprived in the current crisis. These findings suggest that the interaction of the contextual and individual levels should continue to be explored in future studies in order to further clarify the mechanisms underlying protest behaviour.
The recent economic crisis shaped a new wave of protest in Europe mobilising thousands of people. Austerity measures brought not only the 'usual suspects' onto the streets, they also awoke less frequent demonstrators. What brought all these people to the streets? Are their motivations the same for participation in all demonstrations? We compare participants in two types of mobilisations against austerity: those called particularistic (which are reactions to particular anti-austerity issues), and those universalistic (which address much broader issues such as questioning the political system). We also compare two typologies of participants taking into account their participation history: regular and occasional protesters. Employing a two-by-two design defined by type of demonstration (Particularistic vs. Universalistic) and the individual's participation history (Occasionals vs. Regulars), we found that the differences between demonstrations were smaller than those within types of protesters. Nevertheless, even in this period of hardship, motivation to participate in particularistic or universalistic protests differ depending on the perceptions of political system, ideological positioning and organisational embeddedness. Interaction analyses showed that different levels of identity, trust in institutions and satisfaction with democracy are crucial in driving people to participate in different types of demonstrations as occasionals or regulars.
European Anti-Austerity Protests - Beyond "old" and "new" social movements?
2015
This article explores the social composition of participants in anti-austerity protests taking place in Belgium, Italy, Spain and the UK between 2010 and 2012, based on over 3000 questionnaires distributed to protest participants according to a standardized method. Employing a distinction between three types of mobilizations, we compare protests anchored in the traditional ‘old’ labour movements, protests by smaller radical leftist unions and parties, and the ostensibly newer kinds of mobilizations in the form of Indignados and Occupy protests. Although easily forgotten, we argue that the two former types of anti-austerity protests deserve equal attention from researchers. We conclude that there are significant differences between the protest categories in terms of socio-demographic characteristics of their participants, but the participants nevertheless appear to maintain surprisingly similar political values across demonstration types. Class identification also differed. The participants in the Indignados/Occupy protests had a markedly lower degree of identification with the working class – regardless of the ‘objective’ labour market position and controlling for country differences. These aspects relate to the classic distinction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ social movements, but we argue that it risks obscuring a more complex pattern of similarities and differences between different anti-austerity mobilizations
Explaining Differential Protest Participation: Novices, Returners, Repeaters, and Stalwarts
Mobilization: An …, 2012
Protest participation scholarship tends to focus on the special characteristics of novices and the highly committed, underplaying the significance of those in between. In this article, we fill a lacuna in the literature by refocusing attention on four different types of protesters -novices, returners, repeaters and stalwarts. Employing data from protest surveys of demonstrations that took place in seven European countries (2009-2010) we test whether these types of protesters are differentiated by biographical/structural availability and/or psychological/attitudinal engagement. Our results suggest that biographic availability distinguishes our four groups, but not as a matter of degree. Few indicators of structural availability distinguish between the groups of protesters, and emotional factors do not distinguish between them at all. Some political engagement factors suggest similarity between novices and returners. This confirms the need to avoid treating protesters as a homogenous group and reinforces importance of assessing the contributions of diverse factors to sustaining 'protest politics'
Austerity and Protest: Popular Contention in Times of Economic Crisis Edited by Marco Giugni and Maria Grasso Austerity and Protest: Debates and Challenges Marco Giugni and Maria Grasso PART I: AUSTERITY, ECONOMIC GRIEVANCES, AND PROTEST POLITICS 1. Political Mobilization in Times of Crises: The Relationship between Economic and Political Crises Hanspeter Kriesi 2. At the Ballot Boxes or in the Streets and Factories: Economic Contention in the Visegrad Group Ondřej Císař and Jiří Navrátil PART II: SOCIAL BASES OF PROTEST IN TIMES OF AUSTERITY 3. Are Anti-Austerity Movements ‘Old’ or ‘New’? Maria Grasso and Marco Giugni 4. Does Class Matter in Protests? Social Class, Attitudes towards Inequality, and Political Trust in European Demonstrations in a Time of Economic Crisis Anders Hylmö and Magnus Wennerhag PART III: PERCEIVED EFFECTIVENESS AND PARTICIPATION 5. Bridging the Protest Macro-Micro Gap: Investigating the Link between Motivations, Political Efficacy and Political Context Pauline Ketelaars 6. Trust and Efficacy Taking to the Streets in Times of Crisis: Variation among Activists Massimiliano Andretta, Lorenzo Bosi, and Donatella della Porta PART IV: COLLECTIVE INTERESTS AND SOLIDARITY 7. Beneficiary and Conscience Constituencies: On Interests and Solidarity Bert Klandermans, Jacquelien van Stekelenburg, and Marie-Louise Damen 8. Anti-Cuts Protests in the UK: Are We Really All in This Together? Clare Saunders, Silke Roth, and Cristiana Olcese PART V: AUSTERITY, PROTEST, AND THE LABOR MARKET 9. A Tale of Two Crises: Contentious Responses to Anti-Austerity Policy in Spain Camilo Cristancho 10. Feelings of Hardship and Anxiety for Contentious Politics: Economic Crisis and the Unemployed Youth in France Manlio Cinalli and Pavlos Vasilopoulos Austerity and Protest: Lessons and Future Research Marco Giugni and Maria Grasso
Dissatisfaction with the economic situation and perceived governmental inefficacy in regard to the financial crisis has spawned a widespread feeling of political distrust across Europe. This distrust has been translated into protests against institutional authority that aims at either expanding democratic procedures or supporting xenophobic and populist measures. This research uses European Social Survey data to compare exclusive and inclusive protesters with regard to a number of personal and social values, attitudes toward democratic principles, and different life conditions and socio‐economic resources. It also considers contextual factors to investigate how different protesters' profiles are interwoven with socio‐economic conditions. The results of a multilevel latent profile analysis show that exclusive and inclusive protesters, despite sharing similar levels of political distrust, differ with regard to key values and political attitudes, and these differences are related to individual and collective living conditions. We argue that unfavourable living conditions play a non‐negligible role in increasing the probability of easy (i.e., populist) scapegoat political attitudes. Further support for this hypothesis is provided by the cross‐country analysis, which shows that higher levels of exclusive protest are present in countries that were characterized by worse living conditions before the economic crisis.