Participation and Democracy: Dynamics, Causes ... - Jacobs University

In fact, the “Political Action Study” was the first systematic empirical study that
challenged the – up to this point dominant – view among scholars and politicians that
protest activism happened to be a threat to the democratic political order, even
contributing to a “crisis of democracy” (Huntington 1968, 1974a, b; Croizier,
Huntington and Watanuki 1975). Later on I will elaborate in more detail on the debated
consequences of the “participatory revolution” (Kaase 1984) that has taken place in
postindustrial democracies.
To be sure, people gathering to voice their opinion, infuriated workers on strike, or any
other form of disobedience, even collective violence, is surely not exclusively a
characteristic of our time (Gurr 1970; Tilly, Tilly and Tilly 1975; Graham and Gurr
1979; Dalton 2002: 58-60). However, violent forms of protest activism have been and
still are a marginal phenomenon in all postindustrial societies. Whereas also the
acceptance to use violent means to support a political opinion is still very low,
acceptance and exercise of non-violent elite-challenging activities have gained
widespread popular support. The political action repertoire has expanded during the past
decades as societies have undergone tremendous political, economic and social changes,
summarized in the account of modernization theory. The following chapter will present
different theoretical approaches to explain the dynamics, causes and consequences of
elite-challenging activities.
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