More “Duty” than Dissent: Explaining the Sense of Duty to Protest in a Democratic Context

Morality is an underexplored driver of protest behaviour, despite its central role in shaping participation. This paper develops the concept of a duty to protest and advances a unified framework that conceptualises it as a conditional yet genuine civic duty, grounded in a moral logic of resistance and accountability rather than conformity. I theorise that this sense of duty is shaped by specific individual political conditions and strong stances on moralised issues, which together help explain why some citizens view protest as a moral obligation. Drawing on the Spanish Democracy, Elections and Citizenship (DEC) panel survey, I find that perceptions of duty are strongly associated with politicisation and positive attitudes toward institutions, while the effect of extreme issue positions is less consistent. The results have implications for how civic obligations are conceptualised and for understanding the role of protest in democratic life.