Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Ballots and Blockades: The Normalization of Protest in Latin America

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

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.