Political Responsiveness in Times of Crisis

Abstract

Protests against government policies are not rare although at the time of economic crisis there are probably more reasons for protests and therefore also move contentious mobilization. Policy-makers are blamed if they are not proposing any plans for remedying the citizens’ difficulties or if they do propose some too radical austerity plans. The interesting question, especially in the contexts of democratic governments, is the authorities’ responsiveness to such citizens’ protests. Do activists actually achieve what they ask for (a new constitution, regulation, legislation or a resignation of a politician) or do their efforts fail and governments continue with their policies? More importantly, in what context these processes take place? Can we say that at the time of crisis there is more policy responsiveness because of all the insecurity? Or is the situation opposite and governments are rather following the requests of the international community than their own protesting citizens? Is the short term success actually an achievement the activists looked for and what are the unintended political consequences of contentious actions in times of crisis. This panel welcomes papers that deal with the above outlined questions and systematically examine the governments’ long and short term responsiveness to citizens’ demands in times of crisis, particularly to such demands that are expressed via non-electoral forms of actions. Comparative papers are particularly welcome, but even interesting case studies, which help to improve our understanding of political responsiveness, are very welcome.