Dynamics of Individual Participation: Surveying Italian Protestors

Abstract

This article investigates the factors that explain differential individual involvement in political demonstrations. Though the question of who actually participates in (protest) politics is by no means new, the authors build here upon existing literature in social movement studies in order to test some of the existing hypotheses. Reviewing existing research on individual participation in contentious politics, four theoretical arguments used to explain participation differentials were highlighted: the socio-biographical argument pointing to either social centrality or biographical availability; the collective identity process based on the interaction between norms, values, and actions; the network integration argument; and the argument that emotions are in the driver's seat. The article proposes an original analysis based on surveys carried out during nine demonstrations that occurred in Italy between 2011 and 2013 on a variety of issues, some directly related to the economic crisis and the consequent austerity policies, others mainly addressing new social movements claims. Looking at the participation in demonstrations of 1624 protestors, we conclude that social centrality and collective identity formation have higher explanatory power in examining degrees of participation in protest.

Key Words:

• Political participation
• protest politics
• social movements
• Italian politics

Acknowledgements

Donatella della Porta wishes to thank the European Research Council for an Advanced Scholar grant. The authors are also grateful to Lorenzo Bosi, Herbert Reiter, and the other researchers who took part in different moments of the survey. The two authors shared the thinking and writing of the entire article; however, as some assessment processes require formal attribution, we declare that Donatella della Porta is responsible for Sections 1–4 and Massimiliano Andretta for Sections 5–8 and Appendix.

Notes

1. For more information on the demonstrations, see project websites: http://www.protestsurvey.eu/index.php?page=index; http://cosmos.eui.eu/Projects/Contexcontest.aspx

2. Cr.s V: .29, significant at the .001 level.

3. The binary correlations between a 5-point scale of identification, where 1 is ‘not at all’ and 5 is ‘very much’, and the three-point scale of participation experience produced the following Kendall's tau-b values: .05 and .06, both significant at the .05 level.

4. Political interest (a 4-point Likert, Kendall's tau-b index of binary correlation: .29, significant at the .001 level); talking politics (a 5-point Likert scale, Kendall's tau-b .28, significant at the .001 level); and left–right self-placement scale (from 0 ‘left’ to 10 ‘right’; Kendall's tau-b: .30, significant at the .001 level).

5. Those variables are based on the degree of agreement in a 5-point Likert scale on statements aimed at revealing left-libertarian values on issues such as ‘redistribution’ (Kendall's tau-b indexes of binary correlation : .21, significant at the .001 level), ‘children's obligation to obey their parents' (Kendall's tau-b: − .23, significant at the .001 level), ‘privatization’ (Kendall's tau-b: −.24, significant at the .001 level), and ‘the right to migrate’ (Kendall's tau-b: .23, significant at the .001 level).

6. Trust in national governments (a 5-point Likert, Kendall's tau-b: −.21, significant at the .001 level); and satisfaction with democracy (a 5-point Likert, Kendall's tau-b: −11, significant at the .001 level).

7. Cr.s V: .13, significant at the .001 level; the relative Kendall's tau-b of a binary correlation is .17, significant at the .001 level.

8. Cr.s V: .20, significant at the .001 level.