Citation

Ewha journal of social sciences 2017; 33(2): 217-249.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Ewha Institute of Social Sciences (EISS))

DOI

10.16935/ejss.2017.33.2.007

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Although protest politics have exponentially increased in frequency and intensity in South Africa in recent years, there is no systematic studies about major determinants of individual level protest participation. This study is designed to investigate whether political or economic grievances are the major driver of mass demonstrations in South Africa. Using World Values Survey data in 2013 and employing regression analysis of individual level survey data based on protest participation as the dependent variable, I find that economic grievances and pessimistic assessment about future social upward mobility make a more significant influence on decisions of ordinary citizens to protest than political grievances. This study shows that economic hardship and negative perception about horizontal inequality are associated with a higher likelihood of protest participation, whereas dissatisfaction about the level of democracy and politics is not associated with a higher likelihood of protest participation. Lastly, social mobilization in labor union and party organizations is significantly associated with higher protest participation. This study concludes that protest politics in South Africa were driven mainly by economic grievances and social capital.

Language: en

Keywords

South Africa; public opinion; economic grievances; protest politics; World Values Survey