We Are The People! Street Demonstrations As a Means Of Communication

We are the people! Street demonstrations as means of communication

Over the last decades we have witnessed a dramatic rise in the occurrence of street demonstrations. Increasingly, citizens chose street demonstrations as a means of communication. "We are the people!" or more recently "We are the 99%!" are appeals to politicians to listen to the people and to take their claims serious. Movement politics have become the natural counterpart of party politics.

    Employing a unique dataset of over 80 demonstrations that occurred between 2009 and 2013 in 9 different European countries, we give voice to the citizens who populated these protest events. Some of these demonstrations were people protesting the austerity measures they were suffering from. For instance, students protesting a raise of tuition fees or public health workers fighting budget cuts. Other were people demonstrating against the way democracy was practiced in their country. Democracy, as we know it for decades, no longer satisfies many a citizen. Not only in post-communist and authoritarian regimes but also in mature democracies people challenges democracy as it is done. Occupy-London or Amsterdam, or the 15^thof May in Spain are examples. We will compare the participants in these two types of demonstrations. What were their grievances? How did they evaluate democracy in their country? Did they trust state institutions? What did they expect from their participation? Did they participate in party politics next to movement politics or had they given up party politics? How were they embedded in the multi-organizational field?  

    We maintain that movement politics is a necessary complement of party politics. The democraticness of a country is defined by the quality of both movement and party politics.