Debate
Rising Against or Rising to the Occasion: Considering the Extent to Which Protests are an Effective way of Producing Real Change
23 protest is inherently bound up in a clear goal: turning opinion into action. Sheer multitude accounts for a preliminary ingredient needed to initiate a protest as we know it. The desperation for expressions of dissatisfaction to be heard, and the desire for the collective experience of being included in an enterprise larger than the self, are a powerful combination. Numbers for the January 2017 Women’s March climbed into the millions. The Extinction Rebellion reached sixty cities worldwide. It is difficult to imagine either being forgotten by anyone living within the scope of their media coverage. When it comes to protest, size matters. Add one part organisation, one part commitment to non-violence, and one cause that will appeal to at least a sizeable portion of the masses, and the recipe for an effective protest is complete, according to Ph.D. Candidate in Government at Harvard University Shom Mazumder.
protest is defined as a movement aiming to create change, its success may then be considered to be inseparable from the achievement of its original goal. Such a literal approach to determining the effectiveness of a protest depends entirely on it directly resulting in the desired change, whether that be ousting Donald Trump from office, cancelling Brexit plans, or pushing a nation’s government to supremely prioritise the climate emergency, to cite recent By Issabella Orlando examples. But this is far too linear a definition of success, Human beings have expressed and thus an impractical way of their exasperation towards that determining the effectiveness of which they object to for as long a protest on the whole. The as they have organised many anti-Trump protests that themselves into orderly societies. have emerged across America Since the earliest Athenian since the democracy through to the 2016 present day, citizens have election, the collectively risen against ‘the tyrant’–leaders, “When it comes to protest, size matters. anti-Brexit gatherings institutions, corporations, outside Add one part commitment to nonideologies, individuals big British and small. Defined today as violence, and one cause that will appeal to Houses of ‘a form of political Parliament, expression that seeks to a sizeable portion of the masse, and the and the bring about social or recipe for an effective protest is complete.” global political change by disbanding influencing the knowledge, of the attitudes, and behaviours of Extinction the public or the policies of Rebellion movement might all an organisation or institution’ by be argued to be effective, not University of Wisconsin But the effectiveness of a protest because they have resulted in professor of Mass cannot be considered without the pragmatic success of their Communication Dr. Doug clearly defining what ‘effective’ distant aims, but because of McLeod, the concept of social means in this context. If a KCL Politics Society
