Mobilizing Usual versus Unusual Protesters. Information Channel Openness and Persuasion Tie Strength in 71 Demonstrations in Nine Countries

Abstract

ABSTRACT Decades of research found that protest participation is unequally distributed over the population. The usual protesters are resourceful, skilled, and politically engaged. We theorize that “open channel” mobilization and mobilization via strong persuasion ties is able to bring unusual protesters to the streets. Additionally, we explore the contextual antecedents of both mobilization types. Results are based on large-scale protest survey data encompassing 71 protests from nine countries. We measure protester (un)usualness in terms of education, political interest, political efficacy and past participation. We find that mobilization via closed information channels and weak persuasion ties generally leads to the well-known skew in participation. Open information channels and strong persuasion ties, on the other hand, tend to decrease the probability of participants being usual suspects and increase the probability of participants being unusual suspects. In sum, not all mobilization fosters inequality.