Protest and the diffusion of contention in Europe

Citizens engage in politics in different ways and voting is only one of the means that they use to express their political preferences. From the Gilet Jaunes in France to the global feminist strike, people have taken to the streets to protest against rising inequalities, welfare cuts, unequal access to education and the decline in real wages and pensions. Protests are not limited to the young and deprived, but also engage well-educated groups and middle classes. They represent a reaction not only to economic grievances, but also to situations in which political institutions are perceived to be closed to the demands of (particular groups of) citizens. Forms of political participation can be broken down in two macro categories: 1) conventional participation including voting, joining parties and interest groups, signing a petition; and 2) unconventional or contentious participation such as protesting, striking, occupying, boycotting and rioting. Citizens normally combine both conventional and unconventional forms of participation in their repertoire of action, and the boundaries between them are not as clear-cut as one would imagine. At the level of individuals, protest is a growing channel of political expression, and people that join in protests are also more likely to engage in conventional forms of participation. At the level of organizations, it is not uncommon to see protest movements evolve into more institutionalized forms such as associations, foundations, NGOs or even political parties – this has been the case of environmental movements in many European countries and the Five Stars movement in Italy. Moreover, political parties also resort to contentious forms of participation to promote their issues – see the anti-government rallies organized by the Northern League (currently just League) in Italy, or the pro-independence parties’ rallies in Catalonia. Protest is an important form of expression of political conflict in Europe. Yet, its salience varies both across countries and time (Ciccia and Guzman-Concha, 2019). In Figure 1 we show the frequency of protest events in 20 advanced economies during the period 1990-2018. This data covers events that “made it” to the news (New York Times). Although this measure does not distinguish protest events based on the types of issues raised or the claims made, it provides a comparable indicator on the relevance of contentious forms of political participation across countries.