When Ideology Matters: The Ideological Basis of Protest Participation

Since the first empirical works on the topic (e.g. Barnes & Kaase 1979), scientific literature has observed that, in established democracies, left-wing individuals are more prone to non-conventional protest activities. In contrast, research on post-communist democracies (Bernhagen and Marsh 2007, Kostelka 2014) has repeatedly found a reversed relationship and greater protest-activism among right-wing individuals. Drawing on the broader scientific literature on political parties, party competition and historical political trajectories, the current paper forges a new theory on the linkage between ideology and citizens’ protest potential. It reveals how ideology and party competition shape citizens’ political engagement. The theory is validated using individual-level survey data. The results explain both the general difference between the East and West and also finer variation within these regions.