Wave Of Protests Research Articles

Bolivia at a Crossroads: Is Consolidation of a ‘Divided Society’ Feasible?

A protest wave which began in 2019 has swept across many Latin American countries. The Multinational State of Bolivia, where rapid destabilization of political situation has led to a serious internal crisis, was no exception. The paper examines the prospects for conflict resolution in Bolivia through the lens of the ‘divided society’ concept. The first section identifies the key fault lines in Bolivia including ethnic, cultural, and civilizational differences, economic disproportions, and high levels of social and political polarization. The author shows how the regime of Evo Morales managed to reach an internal balance and maintain it for quite a long time through complex balancing, concessions, and compromises. The second section identifies the causes behind the 2019 crisis. These include miscalculations of the government which has revealed general instability of the country’s political system and threatened to erode democratic institutions; changes in electoral behavior of the population; the increasing role of the armed forces. The author links the possibilities to overcome these challenges faced by Bolivia with the expansion of the social protection in conjunction with the principle of consociationalism, but stresses that even so the consolidation of the Bolivian society will be a time-consuming process.

Venezuela: Political Confrontation and the World Community

The paper examines a complex web of domestic and external issues which have both provoked a systemic crisis in Venezuela and, at the same time, determined its specificity in comparison with the wave of protests sweeping across Latin America in 2019.The authors conclude that the escalation of the conflict in Venezuela was caused not only by the standoff between the legislative and the executive branches of the government, but also by the split of the whole society into proponents and opponents of ‘socialism of the 21st century’. The contradictions have led to the formation of the parallel branches of power: two presidents, two parliaments and two supreme courts (one of them in exile) which de facto coexist in the country and each claims exclusive rights and legitimacy.The authors also stress that the situation in Venezuela has obvious regional consequences. The miscalculations of the incumbent president were used in election campaigns in other Latin American countries and became one of the reasons for the defeat of left candidates, the subsequent ‘right drift’ leading to the isolation of the republic. The new political landscape has also affected the architecture of integration associations, which failed to develop a unified position toward the Bolivarian regime.Furthermore, in a current heightened state of international tensions Venezuela has turned into a theatre of international rivalry and conflict involving all the key subjects of world politics. The United States, China, Russia and the European Union compete for the energy resources of the country and pursue their own strategic interests. The inability or unwillingness of external forces to reach compromise and to bring the parties to the negotiating table can pose a threat to peace and international security.As a result, Venezuela has become one of the most turbulent countries in the region. At the same time, the repeated outbursts of protest waves are significantly different from popular uprisings in other Latin American states. In the worst-case scenario, a constantly worsening situation may result in a social explosion which threatens to make the Bolivarian Republic another hot spot of the planet.

A revolution in Chile. But where is it headed?

The following essay is an attempt to unify and contextualize much of the media coverage on Chile's protest waves throughout the end of 2019. Information was drawn from Chilean, Brazilian, and international English-speaking publications. After establishing a coherent timeline and narrative to the protests, I set out to understand the composition and dynamics of the protests. Finally, I explore possible causes and precedents to the Chilean crisis in education, healthcare, pensions, poverty and inequality.

Sozialer Protest in Pandemiezeiten in Lateinamerika

Since March 2020, the corona pandemic has wreaked havoc in Latin America Social and economic life has been curtailed and the political effects of the response are alarming The pandemic has coincided with a wave of protests against corrupt governments Almost exactly 100 years ago, Latin America faced a similar mixture of protest and pandemic What insights can be gained, beyond the temporal coincidence of protest waves and pandemics, by comparing the situation of 1918 / 19 with that of 2019 / 20? What role does civil society play? Have the lessons from a century ago been learned? Can observations from the Latin American context be applied beyond the continent? © Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co KG, Gcttingen 2020

The Big Man Muqtada al-Sadr: Leading the Street in Iraq under Limited Statehood

ABSTRACT The article conceptualises the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a big man to explain his proven capability for navigating the hazardous terrain of Iraqi politics. Introduced in Sahlins’ anthropology on Melanesia and refined in African studies, the notion of the big man has been underexploited in accounts of the Arab region. This article defends its relevance for sociopolitical analyses of Iraq and for the study of religious actors. Personal authority is the defining characteristic of a big man, and the mobilisation of followers is the key to his renown. In situations of limited statehood, the ability to build support upon extra-institutional foundations can yield long-lasting political results. Muqtada al-Sadr has relied on an exceptional combination of resources to establish himself as a kingmaker on the political scene. We trace the roots of his ascent and foreground the strategies he has used to accumulate authority in his person. The article analyses Muqtada’s response to the wave of popular protests that swept Southern Iraq in 2019, observing a shift from initial support to open confrontation with the demonstrators. We argue that this shift threatens his status because it undermines his most important power resource: the ability to lead the street.

Viral surveillance and the 1968 Hong Kong flu pandemic

AbstractThis article traces the diffusion of the 1968 Hong Kong influenza pandemic against the backdrop of scientific and global health developments, a global wave of social protests, and Cold War tensions between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Although the outbreak was far less severe than the 1918–19 ‘Spanish’ influenza pandemic, the ease with which influenza spread globally between 1968 and 1970 contributed to a reformulation of global health that emphasized the need for enhanced preparedness and rapid vaccine production. From the 1950s through the 1960s, the scope of disease surveillance expanded, with China increasingly identified as the global epicentre of viral threats. In so arguing, the article challenges histories of global health that suggest that this was a period when concerns for infectious disease receded, in contrast to the final two decades of the twentieth century that saw the ascendancy of an ‘emerging diseases worldview’.

Chilean and French Social Protests of 2018‒2020: A Comparative Analysis

The article provides a comparative analysis of the Chilean protests, which began in 2019 and the Yellow Vests actions, which had started a year earlier. In the 2019 global protest wave, the Chilean and French social crises have some unique characteristics, which include the sustainability of protest activity and the advancement of fundamental demands going beyond the current problems. The author analyzes both protests’ interaction and their impact on each other. Several similarities of both protests revealed: lack of political leadership; the horizontal format of movements built upon the network principle; their remoteness from leading political parties, that is, the non-partisan nature of protests; all-national scale, etc. Chilean rallies were more radical in its nature involving a higher number of participants with a broader social base. The author explains difference in the protests’ political orientation: the left agenda dominated in Chile, while in France the movement was meta-ideological (neither right nor left). The author concludes that in Chile the protest was more mature and managed to achieve more significant results such as the constitutional reform.

‘I Can't Breathe’: The Suffocating Nature of Racism

The death of George Floyd in May 2020 sparked an unprecedented global wave of protests that appeared to mark a turning point in the battle against racial injustice. But protests against racism are not new; each comes and soon passes into the archives of history, leaving few lasting changes in its wake. What was different about the death of Floyd was that the graphic manner of its unfolding was captured on film: the slow act of wilful suffocation (8 minutes and 46 seconds), and how the entire world was seemingly invited to witness the torment and the execution of this man, in broad daylight, even as he cried I can't breathe. However, this discussion attempts to move beyond that moment of death, the protests that followed and the distracting debate about statues and monuments to argue that the death of Floyd must be seen as the culmination of the process of systemic and structural racism. It aims to show how racism shifted from the black body as the visible and material target of racial oppression to air/breath, and how suffocation became the characteristic feature as well as the weapon of contemporary racial injustice.

“Liberation” as a political horizon amidst the coronavirus pandemic in the United States

Participants in diverging US-based protest waves during the coronavirus pandemic are invoking “liberation” as a political horizon. Especially visible are superficially libertarian protests against government “stay-at-home” orders, on the one hand, and, on the other, racial and economic justice organizing around uneven exposure to the deadly effects of the pandemic. Beginning in May 2020, the latter articulation of liberation was amplified by widespread protest against racist police violence. The coronavirus pandemic is putting into sharp relief the contradictions of “liberation” promoted by individualists and underscoring the urgency of organizing for emancipatory social solidarity.

How do protests affect electoral choices? Evidence from Egypt

Abstract This paper examines whether the first and second waves of protest that gripped Egypt starting in January 2011 affected electoral choices in Egypt's first free presidential elections, which took place between May and June 2012. I geocoded the “martyrs”—demonstrators who died during the protests—using unique information from the Statistical Database of the Egyptian Revolution and exploited the variation in districts’ exposure to the Egyptian protests across space and time. Controlling for district heterogeneity by examining the effect of the change in exposure to protests on the change in pro-regime and opposition support between the 2011 referendum and the 2012 elections, I find suggestive evidence that higher exposure to protest intensity leads to a higher share of votes for former regime candidates, both during the first and second rounds of Egypt's first presidential elections after the uprisings. I likewise find that greater exposure to protests is associated with an increased recognition of the importance of order and stability and greater willingness to trade-off human rights in exchange for security. Indeed, in governorates that were highly exposed to protests, individuals were more likely to report incidents of theft, destruction of personal or public property, and job loss. Socially and economically disruptive protests could therefore lead to a greater share of conservative votes in highly affected areas.

The Future of Representative Politics

This paper examines claims made about political representation in recent work on global protest, focusing on two very different authors. Tormey champions the anti-representative claims of various radical movements while Krastev assumes the stance of those political insiders who deplore the failure of protesters to work within established representative institutions. Both turn to examples which seem to best support their positions. Tormey to anarchist inspired movements in Spain and Mexico, his argument being that political representation has been succeed by what he variously calls ‘immediate representation’ and ‘resonance’. Krastev’s focus is Russia, Thailand and Bulgaria. His argument is that protest in these countries can be seen are ‘a collective act of exit’ by middle classes that no longer seek political representation. Using the theorisation of political representation in Rosanvallon’s Counter Democracy, I suggest that the global waves of protest of recent years are nothing inherently novel but can be seen as part of the elaborate and complex process of representation that is argued to have always existed beyond and outside of official elected legislative bodies. In conclusion, I suggest that Macron’s turn to citizen’s assemblies can be seen as informed by just such an understanding of political representation.

Молодежная политика Европейского Союза и «Май 1968»

The article considers the problem in the history of the European Union: what date can be considered the beginning of a youth policy? In reviews of the history of youth policy in the European Union one can frequently find the date “1968”, when a wave of student protests swept across Europe, as a starting point. The article explores the reasons for this role of the May 1968 events. The article gives both a formal and symbolic answer to the question set in the study. Analyzing other studies of the European Union history and documents of the European Communities, the factual and symbolic side of the issue is considered. Using the concept of “places of memory”, coined by Pierre Nora, the author analyzes the symbol of 1968 protests in relation to the history of youth policy of the European Union. Interpreting “1968” as a “place of memory” for European politics, the author comes to the conclusion that the European Union’s youth policy has two starting points: the formal one, which is directly related to the institutionalization of the “youth” social group as a direct object of the European Union’s policy, and the symbolic, which is associated with the recognition of youth as a political entity.

Political and Socio-Economic Roots of Uprisings in the Arab World

The purpose of the research is to determine the political and socio-economic roots of the Arab spring and define its consequences. The article demonstrates similar and distinct features of revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. Particular attention is paid to the transformational consequences in this region. The study results show that the Arab Spring has not brought optimistic changes but worsened socio-economic problems. The Arab Spring uprisings have led to riots, civil wars, social militarisation, the revival of terrorist organisations that affected the economy. The phenomenon of the Arab spring has appeared because of mass discontents with the ruling regimes. This phenomenon is associated with a wave of protests in MENA that have led to a transformation of political, social, inter-regional, economic and financial systems of the region. Revolutions and civil wars have forced migrations to Europe. In turn, this has destabilised the European labour market and drawn the attention of governments to the growing Islamisation of the cultural sphere. The study is interdisciplinary and assesses change of political regimes in Arabic societies.

An Analysis of Orthopedic Surgical Services Provided to Syrian Refugees in a Health Center Away from the Syria District

Background: The Arab Spring, a wave of demonstrations and protests that hadtaken place in the Arab world since December 18, 2010, had also affected Syria. Thenumber of Syrian refugees who have migrated to Turkey is over 3.5 million.Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the demography, clinical featuresand invoice amounts of Syrian refugee patients who were operated in an orthopedicand traumatology clinic of a healthcare institution far from the Syria district region.Materials and Methods: For this purpose, 329 Syrian patients who underwentsurgery in the field of orthopedics and Traumatology between June 2011 and 2018were enrolled in the study. The records of Syrian refugees have been retrospectivelyexamined.Results: Male applicants (76.3%) were more than females (23.7%).%). It was observedthat the highest number of applications were in the field of microsurgery (21.3%),followed by trauma (20.7%) and pediatric orthopedics (14.6%), respectively. Includingthe non-emergency trauma patients, 90% of the patients underwent elective surgerieswhile 10% underwent emergency surgeries. It was determined that the average invoiceamount was 4987 TL (min: 207 TL, max: 87541 TL) and the highest cost was in thefield of vertebral surgery (average 19384 TL). The rate of emergency applications hasshown a significant increase in 2016 and later (2016-2017-2018) compared to 2015 andbefore .Conclusion : The main Syrian refugees patient profile of the health centers far fromthe war zone is composed of elective cases and their costs.Key words: Health Services Accessibility–Hospital Costs–Orthopedic Procedures–Refugees–Syria

Contentious and institutional politics in a petro-state: Nigeria's 2012 fuel subsidy protests

This article explores relations between popular protests and institutional politics in a petroleum-dependent economy. The 2012-protest against fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria was one of the biggest popular mobilisation in Nigeria’s history, and possibly the largest in the wave of protests in Sub-Saharan Africa. This article uses perspectives of contentious politics that bridge structure and agency through a focus on relational dynamics between protests and institutional politics. This article makes four interrelated claims of how the protests are conditioned by and contribute to institutional politics: First, the protests builds on a historical trajectory of labour-led subsidy protests that in itself form part of institutionalised politics. Second, the 2012-protests were historically large due to the particular context of a decade of democracy and oil-led growth, without a popular sense economic justice and real political participation. Third, while new actors came to the scene in 2012, intra-movement fragmentation exposed trade union and civil society weaknesses and failure to build a sustained social movement. Fourth, the 2012-protests inspired civic agency and influenced institutional politics and state-citizen relations, especially reflected in party politics and elections.

Corruption Perceptions and Contentious Politics in Africa: How Different Types of Corruption Have Shaped Africa’s Third Wave of Protest

Does corruption increase general and anti-government protest? Scholarship has produced seemingly incompatible results, with some research demonstrating a strong connection between corruption and the onset of contentious politics and other research finding that heightened perceptions of corruption decrease activism. This article addresses this puzzle by examining how different types of corruption condition diverging contentious outcomes. Focusing on two highly salient forms of corruption in the African context—elite corruption and police corruption—this article argues that the different consequences, salience, and costs associated with these two forms help to condition whether citizens rise up or stay home. This argument is tested via two methods. First, it draws from a survey experiment conducted in five Nigerian states in 2017. The survey experiment tests whether exposure to different types of corruption affects willingness to join in protests. Second, it draws from statistical analysis of geo-located perceptions of corruption and protest across Africa, incorporating checks for both collinearity and endogeneity into the model. The statistical analysis examines whether heightened perceptions of corruption correlate with increased counts of general and anti-government protest. The results from both methods demonstrate that elite corruption is positively correlated with protest, whereas police corruption is not.

‘Paris Today, Leeds Tomorrow!’ Remembering 1968 in Leeds

In 1968, protests against the old order swept the world. From the general strike in France and the student occupations in Paris to the Tet offensive in Vietnam, and from the Black Panthers in the US to the Prague Spring, the movement was contagious. In Britain a wave of student protests and sit-ins took place, most famously at the LSE and Hornsey College of Art but also at a wide range of other campuses and colleges, including at Leeds University. On 31 May 2018, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of ‘May 1968’, a meeting jointly sponsored by the Ford Maguire Society, International Socialism and Taking Soundings was held at the Swarthmore Centre in Leeds to remember what radical politics in 1968 in the city was like. The speakers at the meeting were all activists in 1968: Mike McGrath, Sarah Perrigo, Tom Steele, Lou Lavender and Max Farrar, and the meeting was kindly chaired by Gilda Petersen. This article brings together their recollections and reflections, with a transcript of some of the debate which followed. The introduction, editorial work, transcription and additional explanatory notes are by Christian Høgsbjerg.

Feminist activism 25 years after Beijing

ABSTRACT Young women have taken the lead in a new wave of feminist and democratic protests that have erupted across a wide range of countries, North and South. These movements raise a range of political and analytic questions: To what extent is it useful to identify the recent wave of activism in terms of a new generation of activists? How different is the ‘new’ feminism to earlier forms, and what differences and continuities divide and unite the generations? These questions are explored through examining the characteristics common to contemporary feminisms, and through case studies of different campaigns in Brazil, India, and Malawi.

“Vrem o ţară ca afară!”: How Contention in Romania Redefines State-Building through a Pro-European Discourse

This article belongs to a forthcoming special cluster, “Contention Politics and International Statebuilding in Southeast Europe” guest-edited by Nemanja Džuverovic, Julia Rone and Tom Junes. Massive protest waves, mainly led by younger citizens, appeared during the past years in Romania. Gubernat and Rammelt provide an analysis of the production of meaning by the “Romanian street” as a collective actor. They argue that “Vrem o ţară ca afară! (We want a country like abroad!)” became the leitmotif for important parts of the Romanian protests of the past eight years. For so doing, Gubernat and Rammelt analyze the discursive underpinnings and the constructed frames in recent protests in Romania. Their demonstration synthesizes a social phenomenon that appeared during the Roșia Montană protests of 2013, continued with the Colectiv protests of 2015 and was reconfirmed during the 2017–2018 anti-corruption protests: the dichotomy between the discursive appropriation of the West, as a benchmark of progress and social modernization and the “self-racism” manifested in these movements. The use of Frame Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis for the study of these waves of protests enables them to show how the Western hegemonic discourse on state-building provides the cultural conditions for social action as well as it enables mobilizing agents to frame national discontent. “‘Vrem o ţară ca afară!’ Redefining state-building through a pro-European discourse in Romania” concludes that recent protests in Romania reproduce Western ideals of modern state and politics through a value-based discourse around the idea of belonging to Europe.

Lebanon in Transition: Perceptions of the EU in a Fast Changing Landscape

Lebanon has recently experienced waves of protests (2005, 2015, 2019) dominated by demands for more social and ecological justice as well as appropriate public services. EU policies, however, are perceived in Lebanon as rather removed from this local reality. This is showcased for three key issues related to democracy and human rights in Lebanon, namely conflict, migration, and gender. Going more into depth – based on extensive interviews held in Lebanon with representatives from labour, women’s rights, youth, Islamic organizations, rural development, policy making and new social movements in 2018 – it is revealed that the EU’s presence is not only more invisible than that of other powers (such as the Gulf states, the US, or Russia), but also of its own Member States. Furthermore, its presence is perceived as changing, specifically because of its migration policies. Directly connected to this, its practices are frequently described as divisive, technocratic, unresponsive to local needs, civilizing, and close to the government. Lebanon, Arab uprisings, human rights, European Union