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Protests

Author

Listed:
  • Cantoni, Davide
  • Kao, Andrew
  • Yang, David Y.
  • Yuchtman, Noam

Abstract

Citizens have long taken to the streets to demand change, expressing political views that may otherwise be suppressed. Protests have produced change at local, national, and international scales, including spectacular moments of political and social transformation. We document five new empirical patterns describing 1.2 million protest events across 218 countries between 1980 and 2020. First, autocracies and weak democracies experienced a trend break in protests during the Arab Spring. Second, protest movements also rose in importance following the Arab Spring. Third, protest movements geographically diffuse over time, spiking to their peak before falling off. Fourth, a country’s year-to-year economic performance is not strongly correlated with protests; individual values are predictive of protest participation. Fifth, the United States, China, and Russia are the most overrepresented countries in academic studies. We discuss each pattern’s connections to the existing literature and anticipate paths for future work.

Suggested Citation

  • Cantoni, Davide & Kao, Andrew & Yang, David Y. & Yuchtman, Noam, 2024. "Protests," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 123527, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:123527
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/123527/
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    Other versions of this item:

    • Davide Cantoni & Andrew Kao & David Y. Yang & Noam Yuchtman, 2023. "Protests," NBER Working Papers 31617, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    protests; information technology; movements; political participation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • P00 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - General - - - General

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