Present Political Unrest and Mass Movement
World politics: Essay: A new age of protest
We are witnessing an upsurge of protest in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia—with North America (Occupy aside) and Sub-Saharan Africa being the odd men out. The mainsprings of the protests may be different—some are responses to economic distress, others are revolts against dictatorship, still others express the aspirations of new middle classes in fast-growing emerging markets—but all have common underlying features. The economic, social and political fallout from the 2008–09 global economic and financial crisis helps only partially to explain the upsurge of protest, but what appears to be decisive is the erosion of trust in governments, institutions, parties and politicians—what is generally termed “the crisis of democracy”. The striking features of the protests are their diffuse, inchoate character, their disavowal of politics and ideology, and their self-conscious rejection of organisation and leadership. It is therefore a misnomer to talk about a “new age of revolution”: today’s protest movements bear little resemblance to their 20th–century predecessors.
Within the generalised wave of protest, it is possible to distinguish between several broad types of protest movement.
a) Those pertaining to the “Arab Spring”, the wave of anti-regime and pro-democracy protests and conflicts that began in December 2010 in Tunisia and spread to Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and other countries, sometimes also referred to as the “Islamist Winter” as a result of the success of Islamist parties in ensuing elections.
b) There has been an increasing incidence of more traditional types of social unrest, such as strikes and anti-austerity demonstrations, in response to the continuing negative fallout from the global economic crisis of 2008–09, which has led to rising unemployment, poverty and inequality in many countries.
c) There is also a more amorphous category of protest that could be termed “new social movements”
We are witnessing an upsurge of protest in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia—with North America (Occupy aside) and Sub-Saharan Africa being the odd men out. The mainsprings of the protests may be different—some are responses to economic distress, others are revolts against dictatorship, still others express the aspirations of new middle classes in fast-growing emerging markets—but all have common underlying features. The economic, social and political fallout from the 2008–09 global economic and financial crisis helps only partially to explain the upsurge of protest, but what appears to be decisive is the erosion of trust in governments, institutions, parties and politicians—what is generally termed “the crisis of democracy”. The striking features of the protests are their diffuse, inchoate character, their disavowal of politics and ideology, and their self-conscious rejection of organisation and leadership. It is therefore a misnomer to talk about a “new age of revolution”: today’s protest movements bear little resemblance to their 20th–century predecessors.
Within the generalised wave of protest, it is possible to distinguish between several broad types of protest movement.
a) Those pertaining to the “Arab Spring”, the wave of anti-regime and pro-democracy protests and conflicts that began in December 2010 in Tunisia and spread to Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and other countries, sometimes also referred to as the “Islamist Winter” as a result of the success of Islamist parties in ensuing elections.
b) There has been an increasing incidence of more traditional types of social unrest, such as strikes and anti-austerity demonstrations, in response to the continuing negative fallout from the global economic crisis of 2008–09, which has led to rising unemployment, poverty and inequality in many countries.
c) There is also a more amorphous category of protest that could be termed “new social movements”