'Creating Student Power': Citizen Movements in South America

Historically, Student Movements have been important promoters of social changes in South America. Contemporary Student Movements are now not only social movements but are also called citizens’ movements. Those citizens’ movements represent the change of representations of citizenship in our society. The meaning of the “good citizen” and patterns of citizenship have changed in today’s society and a new citizenship’s conceptions have emerged, particularly among young people. How do young students perceive political legitimacy and what explains their engagement with these citizen’s movements? The aim of this paper is to measure the effect of political socialization on political participation in legal and illegal Students Demonstrations, considering the mediating effect of subjective representations of citizenship. In doing so, the paper will be at the crossroad of social psychology and political science theory. A comparative analysis will be carried out focused on the three countries of the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay) that have been characterized by an increase of Students Demonstration between 2000 and 2017. Data will be obtained from World Values Survey, Latinobarómetro Survey and National Youth Surveys. Analysis considers clustering and multivariate analysis to determinate the effect of the variables. First results show that family, pairs and participation in social organizations, as actors of political socialization, have a significant effect on young political participation. Nevertheless, representations of citizenship seem to have more impact in the choice of the form of political participation. Compliant citizens prefer significantly participate in more institutional forms of participation (vote, political parties) meanwhile, critical citizens prefer significantly be part of a Student Social Movement. The paper argues that subjective representations of citizenship have a mediating effect on the relationship of political socialization and political participation. Societies in South America have changed and there is no single way to perceive citizens’ rights and duties.