Voices of discontent

Student protest participation in Romania

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6180740
AutoresToma Burean (0000-0002-4412-932X, Babeș-Bolyai University), Gabriel Badescu (0000-0003-1880-6435, Babeș-Bolyai University)
Año2014
Volumen47
Número3-4
Páginas385-397
Fecha de publicación2014-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCommunist and Post-Communist Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0967-067X • E-ISSN: 1873-6920
EditorialUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1016/j.postcomstud.2014.10.004
OpenAlexW2055888685
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas17
Referencias citadas67

In January 2012, in several cities of Romania, people turned out to streets to protest. The protests were linked to the wave of movements such as the Indignados or Occupy Wall Street. The students were especially visible among protesters. In this paper, we show that the profile of protests in Romania witnessed a significant shift from workers strikes for higher wages and better jobs, during communism and in the 1990ies, to social movements in which young urban educated citizens mobilize with the help of social networks for issues that are linked to the quality of democracy and life. Furthermore, the shift in protesting is associated, at the individual level, with distrust of the political system, which stimulates engaging in demonstrations. Interestingly, online activism accelerates the feeling of shared distrust of institutions, motivating youth to engage in protest participation, although the effects might be moderate and the causal arrow somewhat uncertain. The hypotheses are tested with data from a general survey on participation in 2012 and a student survey from October 2012. We find that gender, distrust in institutions and family income influence protest behavior. Time spent online has a negative effect on protest engagement and online activism is related to protest behavior

Democracy · Distrust · Feeling · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social movement · Sociology · Survey data collection · Turnout · Voting · Law · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Capital and Networks · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology