Catalysts of change: Unveiling the nexus between protest movements and party politics in the Mediterranean

ABSTRACT

The recent surges of protest have emerged as a striking global phenomenon. Several diverse countries, including Egypt, the United States, Spain, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom, have witnessed massive protest movements over the past decade. Numerous recent studies have underscored the pivotal role of the interaction between protest movements and party politics. However, our understanding of why certain movements profoundly impact the political landscape, sometimes triggering the collapse of existing party systems, while others barely alter conventional politics, remains limited. Drawing from case studies of Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Turkey, we conduct a systematic comparative analysis of the impact of protest movements during the 2010s. We aim to elucidate why and how some protests have proven more effective in reshaping party politics, while others have faltered. Our contention is that the dynamics of the party system play a pivotal role in determining the capacity of social movements to instigate transformative changes in party politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Protest movements
• party politics
• Southern Europe
• party change
• party system change

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

“This work was supported by The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences [NIAS-KNAW] and Hacettepe University BAP Project [SUI-2021-19388].”