When do citizens support government decisions to ignore social protests? The role of instrumental considerations and majoritarian preferences

Bibliographic Data

ID24240250
AuthorsLars Brummel (0000-0001-6383-7404, Leiden University, corresponding author), Dimiter Toshkov (0000-0002-7444-9340, Leiden University)
Year2026
Publication date2026-10-29
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00323217261497306
OpenAlexW7223663730
LanguageEN
References cited83

In democracies, protests can challenge public policy reforms, raising questions on how governments should respond. Our study examines how citizens in the Netherlands would prefer their governments to respond to social protests. Using a pre-registered survey experiment (N = 1262), we varied the level of government implementing a reform and the level of public support for a reform. We used observational data to assess respondents’ views on the reforms and their trust in the government. While our findings reveal relatively strong support for accommodating social protests, citizens are more likely to back governments that ignore protests when these reforms have majority support and align with their own views. Trust in the government also plays a role, but the level of government does not matter for citizens’ attitudes. Overall, our findings highlight that citizens expect governments to listen to social protests but their attitudes are further contingent upon instrumental reasoning and majoritarian views of democracy.

government decision-making · protest repression · Public opinion · public support for government · Social protest · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Political Conflict and Governance · Political Theory and Democracy