From Duty to Protest: Evidence from Panel Data

Why do some citizens continue to protest despite high costs and low chances of success? While existing research has emphasised instrumental and expressive logics to explain this paradox, it has paid far less attention to the role of moral motivations. This paper investigates the extent to which a duty to protest (DtP) motivates individual engagement across different forms of protest. Drawing on three recent waves of the Spanish Political Attitudes (POLAT) panel survey, I analyse participation in general demonstrations, feminist marches, and strikes. The results show that DtP is a strong and consistent predictor of participation across protest domains, even after accounting for conventional factors such as political interest, union membership, and ideology. Moreover, individuals who view protest as a moral obligation are substantially more likely to engage in these actions, and increases in perceived duty over time are associated with a higher likelihood of engagement. These findings provide longitudinal evidence that moral duty independently motivates engagement in diverse forms of protest. The study advances theoretical debates by showing that protest is not merely strategic or expressive but also morally driven and calls for greater attention to civic duty in explanations of contentious action.