Creating critical citizens? Anti-austerity protests and public opinion

ScholarOne - Do Protests Change Citizens' Perceptions of Political Parties? Evidence from the 15-M in Spain

“…Results are mixed: while it is not possible to confirm that there was such a change because the coefficients are not statistically significant, those interviewed days after the beginning of the 15-M had less trust in the PSOE than those interviewed days before the protests (Table 11 in the Appendix). This is similar to what was found in Portugal after the anti-austerity protests [Valentim, 2021].…”

“…This is striking, especially considering that it has been taken for granted that there will be a connection between the two fields [Kriesi, 2014]. In the last few years, some researchers have linked the great recession in Europe, the anti-austerity protests, and the subsequent elections [Anduiza et al, 2012, Bremer et al, 2020b, Valentim, 2021. They found that protests may amplify economic crises' impact, creating political instability.…”

“…The "new new social movements", which started with the 15-M, seem an ideal case study to understand whether protests can alter citizens' perceptions of parties: demonstrators primarily complained about how they were misrepresented by a political elite more worried about the market than the people [Fominaya, 2020, Valentim, 2021. As in all questions regarding protests and political change, this lack of representation may have caused the protests, so it is necessary to disentangle the causes and the effects.…”

“…( Changing ideology might require more time than changing other attitudes which might also explain a shift in the perceptions of PSOE, such as trust in political parties. Using also an unexpected event, previous research has found that the anti-austerity protests in Portugal caused a political confidence crisis [Valentim, 2021]. Unfortunately, most of the questions concerning trust in politicians were asked after wave 2, so I cannot include the treatment of being interviewed before or after the 15-M movement.…”

Repeated Exposure and Protest Outcomes: How Fridays for Future Protests Influenced Voters

“…The second body of literature focuses on the consequences of protests for the public, showing that their effects are not limited to political elites. Specifically, protests have been shown to influence voters' positions on the issues the protest champion (Branton et al 2015), but also voters' broader positions or attitudes towards government or political elites (Frye and Borisova 2019;Valentim 2021), and that they can be effective beyond liberal democracies (Lohmann 1994;Tertytchnaya and Lankina 2020). Overall, this section has shown that both comparative studies and those focusing on the US find that protests can influence both elites' and citizens' behaviour and preferences.…”