Social Protest under Authoritarianism: A Critique of Regime Type and Instrumental Rationality-based Explanations

Abstract

This article critically examines two key assumptions of the research on social protest. First, it explores the validity of the typologies of regime type that guide the literature on social protest and the presupposition that democracies are reasonably responsive to popular demands, including to those made through public contestation. Since citizenship rights are not evenly distributed among all citizens in these countries, it is argued that this assumption is unwarranted. Second, the article challenges the presupposition that protestors are driven by one form of rationality, namely instrumental rationality. In contrast, following Weber, it is argued that participants in public contestation may be directed by different rationalities. Specifically, protestors may seek to do more than simply influence policy outcomes. These arguments are developed with reference to the case of Palestinian citizens of Israel who initiated various forms of social protest under military rule, which lasted from 1948 to 1966.