11. The Diffusion of Protest following the 2007-2008 Global Crash
- Author:
- Cristina Flesher Fominaya
- Publication Date:
- 09-2019
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Institution:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Abstract:
- In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, hundreds of protests spread across the world. Remarkably, despite the diversity of polities, regimes, and socioeconomic status across countries, these protests share two core demands to a varying degree: greater, more meaningful, or “real” democracy; and greater economic justice. While these are two distinct demands, they cannot be sepa- rated from each other. Although initially (and understandably) the protests were interpreted in direct relation to the global economic crash, especially in those countries hit hardest by the crisis and austerity politics, it soon became clear that the protests also reflected a crisis of representative democracy. Financial crises provoke legitimation crises when elites are perceived as having caused and benefited from them. Activists in the global wave of protests following 2008 worked to channel the grievances relating to these crises and to transform the public’s interpretive frameworks of them by contesting dominant narratives about their causes and solutions. Protesters challenged the idea that economic crises were the result of abstract, global capitalist forces and instead placed the blame squarely on economic and political elites. In so doing, they argued that the origin of the crisis was political; austerity policies were not inevitable, but rather the result of collusion between financial and political elites who not only failed to protect citizens against the worst effect of the crisis but also forced them to assume the losses of private capital speculation. While in Europe these protests can best be characterized as pro-democracy and anti-austerity, other movements such as the Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street might better be characterized as pro-democracy and economic justice. The protests revealed an interesting paradox: despite a strong decline in trust and satisfaction with representative politics and political parties, the belief in and support for democ- racy as a value and the demand for its regeneration were core characteristics of protester demands.
- Topic:
- History, Social Movement, Inequality, Protests, Global Financial Crisis, and Elites
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus