University of Calgary

Protest and Democracy

Abstract

In 2011, political protests sprang up across the world. In the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, and the United States, unlikely people sparked or led massive protest campaigns from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street. These protests were made up of educated and precariously employed young people who challenged the legitimacy of their political leaders, exposed a failure of representation, and expressed their dissatisfaction with their place in the aftermath of financial and economic crisis. This book interrogates what impacts, if any, this global protest cycle had on politics and policy, and shows the sometimes unintended ways it continues to influence contemporary political dynamics throughout the world. Proposing a new framework of analysis that calls attention to the content and claims of protests, their global connections, and the responsiveness of political institutions to protest demands, this is one of the few books that not only asks how protest movements are formed but also provides an in-depth examination of what protest movements can accomplish.

Publisher

University of Calgary Press
Calgary
www.ucalgary.ca
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