Win or a Loss? A New Measure of Protest Success-Kimberly Turner, Brown & Harvard Universities

When is a mass protest a "success"? Why are highly mobilized mass protests often followed by public disillusionment? I develop an expanded typology of protest outcomes to score protest campaigns on their effectiveness in extracting concessions, the repressive actions they face, and their overall net effect. Using Mokken Scale analysis, I find that while campaigns are very effective in extracting new concessions, those achievements are often overwhelmed by their associated costs.

This talk is part of the 2022 ICPSR Summer Program's Blalock Lecture Series.