Why does protest surface as a routine form of political participation in certain democracies, but not others? While protest seems to be a relatively common form of political voice in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru, where rates of participation have reached nearly thirty percent of the total population in a given year (LAPOP 2008), it remains very uncommon in countries such as Brazil, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. This dissertation contends that this often-sharp cross-national variation is the result of differences in political institutions across emerging democracies. Specifically, institutional weakness in democratic countries precipitates more radical modes of political participation, as governments' ability to deliver on citizens' expectations fails to match the capacity for mobilization of newly enfranchised democrats. Thus, where institutional performance is low--e.g., high corruption, undisciplined political parties, and low legislative effectiveness--but political engagement is high--i.e. widespread interest in politics and participation in civil society--radical mass protest can become "normalized" owing to the inability of formal political institutions to adequately channel and respond to the demands of citizens.

The intellectual merit of this dissertation comes in the form of four specific theoretical and empirical contributions. First, it draws from the existing literature to offer a fresh theoretical framework for understanding variation in protest participation across democratic countries, arguing that political institutions shape the participatory "tools" chosen by grassroots organizations and actors. Second, this project will constitute the first effort to systematically test contending explanations of variations in protest participation across Latin American countries, utilizing survey data from the AmericasBarometer spanning 2006-2012. Third, this dissertation grant application proposes to collect data on protest behavior and subnational democracy in each Argentine province from 1993-2012, building an original subnational database that will be unique in terms of its geographic and temporal scope. Finally, this project will include in-depth case studies of three Argentine provinces characterized by distinct political environments and levels of protest, drawing on in-person interviews with protestors, civic organization leaders, and politicians. Together, these data on Argentine provinces will allow for one of the first comprehensive subnational comparative analyses of the causes of political protest. When combined with the region-wide AmericasBarometer data, this project will offer a powerful two-level study of protest at the national and provincial levels. All original data will be made available to scholars in the U.S. and abroad on the principal investigator's personal website.

The broader impact of this dissertation can be found in the linkage between the dramatic rise in protests across Latin America and wide variations in democratic quality across much of the developing world. Few scholars have examined the consequences of varying levels of institutional effectiveness for mass political participation in third wave democracies. By connecting a growing trend in mass political behavior to specific features of Latin American democratic institutions, this dissertation will shed light on the ways in which political institutions shape how citizens engage the political system they inhabit. The region's policymakers may be interested in knowing how characteristics of political parties, legislative and judicial systems, and executive politics are shaping the contentious activities taking place in their regions.

Moreover, in focusing on protest, this dissertation speaks to a topic that is also currently pertinent to governments outside the region under consideration. Given recent political upheaval in the Middle East, elevated protest participation in China and Russia in recent years, and the rise of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements in the U.S., this dissertation will speak to a more universal audience, contributing to a growing dialogue on a type of political participation that seems increasingly important in countries of all types. Any lessons drawn from Argentina and Latin America will also be germane to other societies that are experiencing similar cycles of contentious politics, therefore making this dissertation unique in terms of the breadth of its potential theoretical contribution.

Project Report

I applied for a dissertation grant from the NSF to support my fieldwork in Argentina, where I would spend several months conducting research for my dissertation project on the political determinants of social protest. Specifically, my dissertation poses the following questions: Why does protest emerge as a common form of political participation in certain democratic systems, but not others? Further, under what conditions do significant numbers of citizens in democracies go beyond traditional political participation (e.g. voting or volunteering for a political campaign) and adopt aggressive and sometimes violent collective actions? I have sought to answer these questions using cross-national survey data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) and subnational data on protests and provincial political environments in Argentina, one of the hotbeds for contentious protest in Latin America. With NSF funding, I was able to spend several months in Buenos Aires collecting data on roadblocks and acts of rebellion across Argentine provinces, and electoral data that I have used to construct indicators of subnational democracy for each province from 1993-2011. These data provide the basis for a provincial analysis of contentious politics that makes up two chapters of my dissertation, which I hope will one day be a book. While living in Buenos Aires, I was also able to attend dozens of protest rallies where I observed protest mobilization and tactics firsthand, conducted informal interviews with participants, and took photographs of the proceedings. My time in Buenos Aires actually coincided with several of the largest demonstrations in the country’s history, including one cacerolazo (a protest where individuals bang pots and pans while marching towards the central Plaza de Mayo) that drew over 700,000 people in the capital. The ability to attend these rallies and experience contentious politics firsthand was instrumental to understanding how these processes actually work, informing my theoretical framework for explaining protest in Argentina and the rest of the region. I also used NSF funding to travel throughout three Argentine provinces – Buenos Aires, San Luis, and Mendoza – where I carried out interviews with public officials, community organizers, local academics, and journalists. In total, I interviewed more than forty individuals, each of which offered a unique perspective on protest in their community and home province. Combined with the quantitative data I acquired in Buenos Aires, these three interview-based case studies have provided the foundation for a qualitative chapter that compares movement dynamics across three distinct provincial political environments, which I believe is crucial to offering a more nuanced analysis of the how and why of contentious politics in Argentina. I believe that my dissertation, which I will defend in the coming months before beginning a postdoctoral fellowship at University of Pennsylvania in Fall 2014, offers one of the most thorough examinations of protest and contentious politics in Latin America to date, and without NSF funding to conduct my research in Argentina it never would have reached its full potential.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
1263807
Program Officer
Erik Herron
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2013-04-01
Budget End
2014-03-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$12,324
Indirect Cost
Name
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Nashville
State
TN
Country
United States
Zip Code
37235