Protest as One Political Act in Individuals’ Participation Repertoires: Latent Class Analysis and Political Participant Types

Abstract

This study advances research on the role of protest in individual-level participation repertoires by examining how latent class analysis can be used to identify distinctive types of political participants. This methodological approach requires shifting researchers’ traditional theoretical and analytical focus on protest as a single political act to the ways in which political actors combine protest with other political behaviors. From a theoretical perspective, the study examines the increased salience of research on the causes and consequences of protest in the context of individuals’ broader participation repertoires. From a methodological perspective, an illustrative analysis is conducted using the 2016 American National Election Studies survey to test theoretical expectations about the relationship between protest and civic duty. The study concludes with a discussion of how latent class analysis can be used to advance research on protest as one political act in individuals’ broader repertories of political participation.