Explaining Protest in the Aftermath of the Great Recession in Europe: The Relevance of Different Economic Indicators


Abstract


The European economic crisis has brought economic hardship and prolonged instability to many countries in the European Union. While economies are struggling to recover, citizens have opted to become more vocal unconventionally. Mass protest, public occupations and demonstrations have dominated Europe. Yet, numbers of people choosing to protest need to be assessed to verify whether the economic recession is indeed responsible for a surge in protest activism on the continent. With the use of multiple rounds from the European Social Survey (2006-2012), this article tests the hypothesis linking unconventional political behavior in Europe to the economy. Findings suggest that overall European protest levels are not higher after the crisis, although confrontational activism has spiked in few countries. Economic variables retain instead an important role in the explanation of protest in the post-recession era, with both objective and subjective economic measures supporting a grievance theory explanation of why Europeans protest. Economic decline matters in the selection of protest as a mode of political participation.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v9i1p101

Keywords: economic crisis; European public opinion; European Social Survey; grievance theory; protest

References


Accornero, G., and P. Ramos Pinto (2015), “‘Mild Mannered’? Protest and Mobilisation in Portugal under Austerity, 2010-2013”, West European Politics, 38 (3): 491-515.

Anderson, C., and J. Hecht (2014), “Crisis of Confidence?”, in N. Bermeo, and L. Bartels (eds.), Mass Politics in Tough Times, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 40-71.

Armingeon, K., and K. Guthmann (2014), “Democracy in Crisis? The Declining Support for National Democracy in European Countries, 2007-2011”, European Journal of Political Re- search, 53 (3): 423-442.

Auvinen, J. (1997), “Political Conflict in Less Developed Countries 1981-89”, Journal of Peace Research, 34 (2): 177-195.

Barnes, S., and M. Kaase (eds. 1979), Political Action: Mass Participation in Five Western Democracies, Beverly Hills: Sage.

Beissinger, M., and G. Sasse (2014), “An End to Patience?”, in N. Bermeo, and L. Bartels (eds.), Mass Politics in Tough Times, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 334-370.

Breslow, N.E., and D. G. Clayton. (1993), “Approximate Inference in Generalized Linear Mixed Models”, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 88 (421): 9-25.

Calvo, K. (2013), “Fighting for a Voice: The Spanish 15-M/Indignados Movement”, in C. Flesher Fominaya, and L. Cox (eds.), Understanding European Movements, New York: Routledge.

Caren, N., R. A. Ghoshal, and V. Ribas (2011), “A Social Movement Generation: Cohort and Period Trends in Protest Attendance and Petition Signing”, American Sociological Review, 76 (1): 125-151.

Dalton, R., A. Van Sickle, and S. Weldon (2010), “The Individual-Institutional Nexus of Protest Behavior”, British Journal of Political Science, 40 (1): 51-73.

Dalton, R. (2014), Citizen Politics, Thousand Oaks: CQ Press.

Dalton, R., C. Welzel (eds. 2014), The Civic Culture Transformed, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Della Porta, D. (2015), Social Movements in Times of Austerity: Bringing Capitalism Back into Protest Analysis, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Dodson, K. (2011), “The Movement Society in Comparative Perspective”, Mobilization, 16 (4): 475-494.

Dubrow, J., K. Slomczynski, and I. Tomescu-Dubrow (2008), “Effects of Democracy and Inequality on Soft Political Protest in Europe: Exploring the European Social Survey Da-ta”, International Journal of Sociology, 38 (3): 36-51.

ESS Round 3: European Social Survey Round 3 Data (2006). Data file edition 3.5. Norwe-gian So cial Science Data Services, Norway – Data Archive and distributor of ESS da-ta for ESS ER IC.

ESS Round 4: European Social Survey Round 4 Data (2008). Data file edition 4.3. Norwe-gian So cial Science Data Services, Norway – Data Archive and distributor of ESS da-ta for ESS ER IC.

ESS Round 5: European Social Survey Round 5 Data (2010). Data file edition 3.2. Norwe-gian So cial Science Data Services, Norway – Data Archive and distributor of ESS da-ta for ESS ER IC.

ESS Round 6: European Social Survey Round 6 Data (2012). Data file edition 2.1. Norwe-gian So cial Science Data Services, Norway – Data Archive and distributor of ESS da-ta for ESS ER IC.

Flesher Fominaya, C., and L. Cox (eds 2013.), Understanding European Movements, New York: Routledge.

Furusawa, K. (2006), “Participation and Protest in the European Union and the ‘Outsider’ States”, Contemporary Politics, 12 (2): 207-223.

Gurr, T. (1970), Why Men Rebel, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Heck, R., L. Tabata, and S. Thomas (2012), Multilevel Modeling of Categorical Outcomes Using IBM SPSS, New York: Routledge.

Hooghe, M. (2012), “Taking to the Streets”, Harvard International Review, 34 (2): 34-38.

Inglehart, R. (1977), The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Inglehart, R., and G. Catterberg (2002), “Trends in Political Action: The Developmental Trend and the Post-Honeymoon Decline”, International Journal of Comparative Sociol-ogy, 43 (3-5): 300-316.

Jakobsen, T. G., and O. Listhaug (2014), “Social Change and the Politics of Protest”, in R. Dalton, and C. Welzel (eds.), The Civic Culture Transformed, New York: Cambridge Uni-versity Press, pp. 213-239.

Kern, A., S. Marien, and M. Hooghe (2015), “Economic Crisis and Levels of Political Partic-ipation in Europe (2002-2010): The Role of Resources and Grievances”, WestEu-ropean Politics, 38 (3): 465-490.

Kosmidis, S. (2014), “Government Constraints and Accountability: Economic Voting in Greece Before and During the IMF Intervention”, West European Politics, 37 (5): 1136-1155.

Melo, D., and D. Stockemer (2014), “Age and Political Participation in Germany, France and the UK: A Comparative Analysis”, Comparative European Politics, 12 (1): 33-53.

Meyer, D., and S. Tarrow (1998), “A Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a New Century”, in D. Meyer, and S. Tarrow (eds.), The Social Movement Society, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 1-28.

Norris, P. (2002), Democratic Phoenix: Reinventing Political Activism, New York: Cam-bridge University Press.

Norris, P., S. Walgrave, and P. Van Aelst (2006), “Does Protest Signify Disaffection?”, in M. Torcal, and J. R. Montero (eds.), Political Disaffection in Contemporary Democra-cies: Social Capital, Institutions and Politics, London: Routledge, pp. 279-307.

Quaranta, M. (2013), “Measuring Political Protest in Western Europe: Assessing Cross-National Equivalence”, European Political Science Review, 5(3): 457-482.

Roth, F., F. Nowak-Lehmann, and T. Otter (2011), “Has the Financial Crisis Shattered Citi-zens’ Trust in National and European Government Institutions?”, CEPS Working Paper, n. 343.

Rucht, D. (2007), “The Spread of Protest Politics”, in R. Dalton and H. Klingemann (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 708-723.

Rüdig, W., and G. Karyotis (2014), “Who Protests in Greece? Mass Opposition to Austeri-ty”, British Journal of Political Science, 44 (3): 487-513.

Singer, M. (2011), “Who Says “It’s the Economy”? Cross-National and Cross-Individual Variation in the Salience of Economic Performance”, Comparative Political Studies, 44 (3): 284-312.

Solt, F. (2015), “Economic Inequality and Non-Violent Protest”, Social Science Quarterly, 96 (5): 1314-1327.

Torcal, M., T. Rodon, and M. J. Hierro (2015), “Word on the Street: The Persistence of Leftist-dominated Protest in Europe”, West European Politics, doi: 10.1080/01402382.2015.1068525.

Van Aelst, P., and S. Walgrave (2001), “Who is that (Wo)man in the Street? From the Normaliza tion of Protest to the Normalization of the Protester”, European Journal of Political Research, 39 (4): 461-486.

Vassallo, F. (2010), France, Social Capital and Political Activism, New York: Palgrave.

Welzel, C., and F. Deutsch (2012), “Emancipative Values and Non-Violent Protest: The Im portance of ‘Ecological Effects’”, British Journal of Political Science, 42 (2): 465-479.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
کاغذ a4
Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.