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Social Inequality, State-centered Grievances, and Protest: Evidence from South Africa

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  • Alexander De Juan
  • Eva Wegner

Abstract

What role does horizontal social inequality play for political protest in middle-income countries? We argue that public social service provision is an important driver of state perceptions. When a state fails to deliver services in an equitable manner, trust in institutions erodes and protest becomes more likely. We use a mixed methods design to investigate this argument in South Africa. First, we combine police event records with census data to estimate correlations between service inequality and protests. Second, we draw on an opinion survey with 27,000 respondents to investigate the suggested mechanism linking social inequality to protest through political attitudes. Third, we focus on qualitative protest accounts in two areas identified by a matching approach to assess the plausibility of our quantitative findings. Throughout these analyses, we document a robust association between horizontal social inequality and protest.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander De Juan & Eva Wegner, 2019. "Social Inequality, State-centered Grievances, and Protest: Evidence from South Africa," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(1), pages 31-58, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:63:y:2019:i:1:p:31-58
    DOI: 10.1177/0022002717723136
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Peter Alexander, 2010. "Rebellion of the poor: South Africa's service delivery protests -- a preliminary analysis," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(123), pages 25-40, March.
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