Timeline for Why do protests happen in the light of their apparent futility?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 18 at 13:46 | comment | added | ohwilleke♦ | See nber.org/papers/w32342#fromrss showing that protests usually have no political impact, but sometimes do. | |
| Apr 18 at 11:15 | comment | added | Maciej Stachowski | "because protests are at a minimum, inconvenient for someone." - I think this deserves a bit more emphasis. Protests tend to be - one could argue, should be - disruptive towards the general population. And while it can be a double-edged sword for the protesters, if the protest postulates are indeed popular, it can increase pressure on the government from the average Joes to accede to the demands. | |
| Apr 16 at 11:10 | comment | added | Mike M | and re-frame challenging the OP, the last paragraph of the answer can be super important. Rallies/street-protests can be huge catalysts for the participants that advance their social movement regardless of short term responses by those in power. There are almost never single events that cause social change in isolation. Overreliance on any one action like rallies is not good, but all actions have a purpose, including rallies/protests. | |
| Apr 16 at 9:09 | comment | added | Hobbamok | @AlexanderThe1st petitions are usually cojoined with protests. As in the protests "strengthen" the petition and the other way around. Since they aren't exclusive I kinda dismissed them in the debate. | |
| Apr 16 at 9:01 | comment | added | Alexander The 1st | @Hobbamok: Petitions can be more effective, and still legal, in some situations. Though that you can get primarily more information upfront as to whether or not it will be effective, by sheer number of signatures. On the other hand, organizing a petition and presenting it can be more easier than organizing a protest and then banking on everyone of the protesters showing up at the same time. Petitions don't have that attendance requirement as often. | |
| Apr 16 at 8:35 | comment | added | Hobbamok | Correction: The most effective legal (or unlikely to lead to serious consequences) tool available | |
| Apr 16 at 7:38 | comment | added | TooTea | @alamar As a European example, take the 1989 Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, which managed to topple the Communist government without any significant violence at all. Sometimes it really only takes a bunch of people taking to the streets for the government to realize they're now completely alone and in a hopeless situation. | |
| Apr 16 at 7:37 | comment | added | Alexander The 1st | @alamar: And I'm skipping over a lot in there, including Bloody Sunday, and Civil Rights Leaders being assassinated leading to riots, which themselves lead to the Fair Housing Act of 1968...while that may not all be linear in the timeline, it's not like people at the time of Rosa Park's protest could've said "Ah, yeah, that's going to be wildly successful well beyond her original goals there in her protest.". | |
| Apr 16 at 7:34 | comment | added | Alexander The 1st | @alamar: Grooke's example was the one I was going to cite - but for context, here's the timeline History.com has of the Civil Rights Movement; the thing I'm calling to attention is the timeline of successes - Rosa Parks went from being arrested for refusing to give up her seat in a segregated Bus section, to encouraging a Montgomery Bus Boycot for 381 days, leading to segregated seating being unconstitutional the next year...and timeline wise, leading towards the Freedom Riders, then eventually to the Voting Rights Act. | |
| Apr 16 at 7:25 | comment | added | Grooke | @alamar then a single example of a successful protest should invalidate your claim. Maybe something like the civil rights movement? | |
| Apr 16 at 6:45 | comment | added | alamar | Based on my question, I'm challenging the assumption that protests will be ever successful at all. You actually do know the answer in advance now. | |
| Apr 16 at 2:17 | comment | added | Alexander The 1st | I'd add that whether or not a given protest is going to work is not known until after the protest is made, or even a series of protests are made around the same subject matter. That would be tying the fact that some protests work with the guilt that protesters might otherwise have if they did not protest. | |
| Apr 15 at 18:29 | history | edited | ohwilleke♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 121 characters in body
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| Apr 15 at 18:24 | history | answered | ohwilleke♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |