ECPR

Install the app

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap Share then “Add to Home Screen”

ECPR

Install the app

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap Share then “Add to Home Screen”

Participation as an Outcome of Protest. Which Outcomes of Participation?

Civil Society
Contentious Politics
Governance
Institutions
Political Participation
NGOs
Protests
Activism
Felix Anderl
Philipps-Universität Marburg
Felix Anderl
Philipps-Universität Marburg

Abstract

Recent studies of the interaction between social movements and formal political institutions have found that institutions tend to answer social protest with more opportunities of participation. Conceptualizing these opportunities as ‘outcome’ leaves the observer wondering whether and how they will translate into policy or other forms of tangible political outcomes. Drawing on the example of the World Bank’s Extractive Industries Review, which was introduced as a reaction to transnational protest, this article identifies the effects of the “opening up” on both the World Bank and its critics. It turns out that the process becomes a reference point for future claims of the transnational advocacy network in that it produces criteria to judge World Bank policies in the extractive industries. However, the review did not entail deep institutional learning or persuasion effects. Diffusion from the protest movement into the institution was thus very limited. At the same time, the transnational advocacy network experienced internal disputes leading to cooptation and movement splits. The case thus traces a process of participation as an outcome of protest, and shows the outcomes of ensuing participation both with regard to the institution and the movement.