Abstract
Many contemporary protests highlight global issues. These protests emerge as a method to influence global politics in the absence of formal structures for citizens to voice their concerns to global political leaders. Prior research establishes that political efficacy, political discussion, and political interest are important predictors of protest participation, but this body of research has not addressed the global dimensions of these variables. Using survey data from 2019 in four countries (USA, UK, France, and Canada), we examine the extent to which perceived influence on international leaders, political discussion of global affairs, and interest in global issues influence protest participation, accounting for the traditional framing of these variables in terms of national politics. We find that all variables correlate with protest participation. We also find that civic uses of Facebook increase the likelihood of protesting. Furthermore, the correlations of these variables with protest participation are consistent across the four countries. In sum, we offer a robust model predicting protest participation considering contemporary global dynamics.
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Funding provided by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant (435-2019-04-94) to Boulianne.
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Boulianne, S., Lee, S. Facebook and the global dimensions of protest participation in France, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Fr Polit 21, 155–178 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41253-023-00208-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41253-023-00208-1