In recent years the world has been shaken by protests, from the Arab Spring to the “Indignados” (outraged), from Occupy to food riots. Hernán Cortés Saenz looks at a recent study of more than 800 protests across the world since 2006, and finds that protests are increasing, especially in developing regions such as Latin America. He writes that these protests are often driven not only by a desire for economic justice, but also by what the protestors perceive as a lack of ‘real democracy’ that prevents economic issues from being addressed

Saenz, Hernán Cortés

LSE Research Online

blogs.lse.ac.ukhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2014/04/10/people-across-the-world-are-protesting-their-lack-of-real-democracy/People across the world are protesting their lack of realdemocracyIn recent years the world has been shaken by protests, from the Arab Spring to the “Indignados”(outraged), from Occupy to food riots. Hernán Cortés Saenz looks at a recent study of more than800 protests across the world since 2006, and finds that protests are increasing, especially indeveloping regions such as Latin America. He writes that these protests are often driven not onlyby a desire for economic justice, but also by what the protestors perceive as a lack of ‘realdemocracy’ that prevents economic issues from being addressed.Indignados, Occupy Wall Street, Chilean students, Que se lixe a Troika, the Arab Spring,Movimento Passe Livre, Anthill, Los Viejitos,. all these names have been appearing periodically in the massmedia, becoming vox populi challenging governments and, in general, the current status quo. These protestsraise questions such as: Is the perception that people are protesting more, real? Where are the main protestslocated? Who are they opposing? Have the methods of protest changed in recent years? There is, however, a keyquestion, which is absolutely necessary to face in order to understand these protests and the current context:Why are people protesting, and what are the protestors’ main demands and grievances? It was these questionsthat motivated our recent joint research on world protests between the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at ColumbiaUniversity and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung NY Office.Through analysis of more than 800 protests (demonstrations, campaigns, strikes, occupations) in 84 countries,and globally, we find that people are protesting more. We are living in an historical context where protests arespreading all over the world. It is not just a dynamic of developed societies –although our research shows thereare more protests in High-Income countries according to the World Bank’s classification- but also that protests arebecoming a common trend in Africa, Asia and, Latin America, as Figure 1 illustrates.Figure 1 – Distribution of protests since 2006 Note: Until July 2013. Regions are based on World Bank classifications Source: Ortiz,Isabel; Burke, Sara; Berrada, Mohamed; Cortes, Hernan. World Protests 2006-2013. NewYork: FES & IPD. September 2013.In parallel, once we began our the analysis of the protests, we were able to observe how demonstrations againstausterity measures in Southern Europe were not only due to economic causes but stemmed from a number ofgrievances. This was and is a common trend among a huge number of cases in our study – we could name themas “multi-cause protests”. While even though the current international context could make us believe that asPresident Clinton’s stated in his 1992 election campaign, “It’s the economy stupid”, our analysis shows that this isnot exactly the case. As a result, we classified the motivations for protests into two main types of grievances.Main grievances Among the different main causes that push citizens to protest, we established 4 main groups, from major to minorimportance as Figure 2 illustrates:Economic Justice and austerityFailure of political representationGlobal JusticeRights Figure 2 – Number of world protests by main grievance or demand, 2006-2013Source: Ortiz, Isabel; Burke, Sara; Berrada, Mohamed; Cortes, Hernan. World Protests2006-2013. New York: FES & IPD. September 2013. *As of July 2013.Within these four categories it is important to highlight “Global Justice”. In this category we can find the differentkinds of protests that are mainly related to environmental issues or austerity measures that the IMF, EuropeanCentral Bank or other International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have recommended that governments implement.This category – which has increased the most in recent years – shows us how citizens are increasingly linking thelocal with the global, what some authors called the “glocal”. We can see how protests against a mine exploitationin the Greek peninsula of Halkidiki are identified with the role of a transnational company, or how protests inMexico against the increase in the price of tortillas are not just focused on the government’s role and howsubsidies are given, but also in the context of the role of speculation in commodity futures markets in Chicago orthe implementation of a free-trade agreement such as NAFTA. A global conscience exists, that could drive us toconclude that global protests are likely to continue their steady rise.Secondary grievances Within each of the previous categories there are a whole range of subcategories that give us more informationabout the exact reasons behind the grievances of protests. Figure 3 shows the five more important, which are:Real Democracy;Against IMF / European Central Bank and other IFIs;Corporation influence / deregulation / privatization;Environmental Justice; andReform of Public Services. Figure 3 – Details of number of protests by grievance or demand, 2006-2013*Source: Ortiz, Isabel; Burke, Sara; Berrada, Mohamed; Cortes, Hernan. World Protests2006-2013. New York: FES & IPD. September 2013. *As of July 2013.As our analysis continued, we realized that the main demand from protestors was a bigger and better democracy(“Real Democracy”), the same demand that came from the Spanish squares more than two years ago. It isparadoxical how in a moment in which the mass media, political classes and institutions are focusing on economicissues, society is asking for a better democracy. This could mean that the perception of the functioning of thecurrent political and economic system is that it is one that benefits some elites, and that it is full of corruption, taxevasion, increasing inequality, financial speculation on food prices, land grabbing by private companies andgovernments, human rights violations, censorship, and surveillance. In this light, a real risk exists of a “clash”between society and politics, financial and corporate elites that could be threaten the maintenance of the socialcontract. The lack of accountability of these actors towards society becomes one more reason to for increasingoutrage and the perception that the gap between both sides is increasing.Susan Strange, the ‘mother’ of International Political Economy’s, wrote in one of her last papers that theWestphalian system was failing. It was, as she named, The Westfailure System. There were three main causesfor this failure: ecological (lack of averting ecological deterioration), financial (the inability to govern and control theinstitutions and the market that creates and trades credit instruments that are essential for the real economy) andsocial (the inability to maintain a sustainable equilibrium between the growing power of the transnational capitalistclass and the “have-nots”). For many citizens, the answer is greater discontent, a demand for more and betterdemocracy, transparency, the denunciation of governments for not listening to their demands, new methods ofprotest and, most importantly, more protests.Featured image credit: Aaron Bauer (Creative Commons BY)This article is based on the Initiative for Policy Dialogue and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York Working PaperWorld Protests 2006-2013. Please read our comments policy before commenting.   Note:  This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of USApp– American Politics and Policy, norof the London School of Economics.  Shortened URL for this post: http://bit.ly/OHORBT_________________________________________ About the authorHernán Cortés Saenz – Autonomous University of BarcelonaHernán Cortés Saenz, from Barcelona (Spain), is pursuing a Ph.D. in International Relations atthe Autonomous University of Barcelona focusing on Oil and Power Relations, and working asfree-lance Consultant / Researcher on International Politics. He has also being part of many civilsociety campaigns such as the Campaign for the Reform of International Institutions, Robin HoodTax Campaign, Tackle Tax Havens, Food Sovereignty and Global Democracy, etc. You can followhim in @nanchisworld.CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 2014 LSE USAPP

People across the world are protesting their lack of real democracy

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