Half a Loaf Is (Not) Better Than None: How Austerity-Related Grievances and Emotions Triggered Protests in Spain*

Galais, Carol; Lorenzini, Jasmine

doi:10.17813/1086-671x-22-1-77

“…It has to be noted that such a conceptualisation of grievances differs from the standard approaches in both social movement and political economy research. In the social movement literature, grievances are usually understood as subjective perceptions of hardship such as fear of unemployment (see, e.g., Galais & Lorenzini ), whereas contributions from political economy often rely on objective measures of material conditions, such as employment status. However, a large body of research on the concept of ‘relative deprivation’ has demonstrated that there is often little relation between such objective material conditions and, for example, satisfaction with one's income (see Pettigrew () for a valuable overview).…”

Section: Data Measures Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic grievances and political protest

Kurer

¹

,

Häusermann

²

,

Wüest

³

et al. 2019

European J Political Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How do economic grievances affect citizens’ inclination to protest? Given rising levels of inequality and widespread economic hardship in the aftermath of the Great Recession, this question is crucial for political science: if adverse economic conditions depress citizens’ engagement, as many contributions have argued, then the economic crisis may well feed into a crisis of democracy. However, the existing research on the link between economic grievances and political participation remains empirically inconclusive. It is argued in this article that this is due to two distinct shortcomings, which are effectively addressed by combining the strengths of political economy and social movement theories. Based on ESS and EU‐SILC data from 2006–2012, as well as newly collected data on political protest in 28 European countries, a novel, more fine‐grained conceptualisation of objective economic grievances considerably improves our understanding of the direct link between economic grievances and protest behaviour. While structural economic disadvantage (i.e., the level of grievances) unambiguously de‐mobilises individuals, the deterioration of economic prospects (i.e., a change in grievances) instead increases political activity. Revealing these two countervailing effects provides an important clarification that helps reconcile many seemingly conflicting findings in the existing literature. Second, the article shows that the level of political mobilisation substantially moderates this direct link between individual hardship and political activity. In a strongly mobilised environment, even structural economic disadvantage is no longer an impediment to political participation. There is a strong political message in this interacting factor: if the presence of organised and visible political action is a decisive signal for citizens that conditions the micro‐level link between economic grievances and protest, then democracy itself – that is, organised collective action – can help sustain political equality and prevent the vicious circle of democratic erosion.

show abstract

“…Case studies have illustrated how emotion when experienced collectively aids mobilization (Chan 2016; Perry 2002; Verhoeven and Duyvendak 2015). Experimental and survey studies have shown how both anger and anxiety boosted protest participation in relation to worker or citizen rights (Galais and Lorenzini 2017; but see also Verhoeven and Duyvendak 2015) and environmental issues (Merry 2010; Woods et al 2012). In particular, anger has been shown to amplify existing motives; the angrier people are the more likely that they will engage in protest (van Stekelenburg and Klandermans 2009).…”

Section: Protest Emotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Friends in High Places

Troost¹,

Klandermans²,

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Scholars working from the political opportunity approach have upheld the notion that the political context sets the grievances around which activist mobilizes. Inspired by Tarrow and colleagues plea to explain political activism by analyzing how activists are mobilized, this article focuses on the individual protester. The research question in this article reads how are activist’s protest emotions shaped by characteristics of the political context, specifically by their political alliances? We focus on the emotional constellation evoked by environmental issues (e.g., climate change and nuclear energy) with Green Parties as movement allies and anti-austerity issues with Social Democratic parties as movement allies. Specifically, the parliamentary position of these allies is linked to the relative stake anger and frustration have within the emotional constellation of demonstrators. Results are based on survey data collected among 6,598 demonstrators, and their emotions dispersed over 28 demonstrations in seven European countries. We conclude that having a politically well-connected friend seems to matter more to demonstrators’ emotional constellation than the ideological support provided by that friend.

show abstract

“…In the social movement literature, grievances are usually understood as subjective perceptions of hardship such as fear of unemployment (see, e.g., Galais & Lorenzini 2017), whereas contributions from political economy often rely on objective measures of material conditions, such as employment status. Take, for example, a production worker in the midst of the Spanish unemployment crisis in 2012.…”

Section: Data Measures Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has to be noted that such a conceptualisation of grievances differs from the standard approaches in both social movement and political economy research. In the social movement literature, grievances are usually understood as subjective perceptions of hardship such as fear of unemployment (see, e.g., Galais & Lorenzini 2017), whereas contributions from political economy often rely on objective measures of material conditions, such as employment status. However, a large body of research on the concept of 'relative deprivation' has demonstrated that there is often little relation between such objective material conditions and, for example, satisfaction with one's income (see Pettigrew (2016) for a valuable overview).…”

Section: Data Measures Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic grievances and political protest

Kurer

¹

,

Häusermann

²

,

Wüest

³

et al. 2018

European Journal of Political Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How do economic grievances affect citizens’ inclination to protest? Given rising levels of inequality and widespread economic hardship in the aftermath of the Great Recession, this question is crucial for political science: if adverse economic conditions depress citizens’ engagement, as many contributions have argued, then the economic crisis may well feed into a crisis of democracy. However, the existing research on the link between economic grievances and political participation remains empirically inconclusive. It is argued in this article that this is due to two distinct shortcomings, which are effectively addressed by combining the strengths of political economy and social movement theories. Based on ESS and EU‐SILC data from 2006–2012, as well as newly collected data on political protest in 28 European countries, a novel, more fine‐grained conceptualisation of objective economic grievances considerably improves our understanding of the direct link between economic grievances and protest behaviour. While structural economic disadvantage (i.e., the level of grievances) unambiguously de‐mobilises individuals, the deterioration of economic prospects (i.e., a change in grievances) instead increases political activity. Revealing these two countervailing effects provides an important clarification that helps reconcile many seemingly conflicting findings in the existing literature. Second, the article shows that the level of political mobilisation substantially moderates this direct link between individual hardship and political activity. In a strongly mobilised environment, even structural economic disadvantage is no longer an impediment to political participation. There is a strong political message in this interacting factor: if the presence of organised and visible political action is a decisive signal for citizens that conditions the micro‐level link between economic grievances and protest, then democracy itself – that is, organised collective action – can help sustain political equality and prevent the vicious circle of democratic erosion.

show abstract

Half a Loaf Is (Not) Better Than None: How Austerity-Related Grievances and Emotions Triggered Protests in Spain*

Cited by 26 publications

References 49 publications

Economic grievances and political protest

Economic grievances and political protest

Friends in High Places

Economic grievances and political protest

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About