Politics of protest

The project "Politics of protest. Understanding political protest in Central Europe" examines recent popular protest movements in Central European countries. Six expert seminars organized in cooperation with Collegium Civitas serve to examine recent protests in Bosnia, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania. Invited country experts will discuss the political background, sociological causes and motivations of protests as well as organizational forms of current mobilizations. The case studies will help us to develop a common analytical framework for understanding political protest in the region. Project description.

Kontrmanifestacja Pegidy "Unmask racism"

PEGIDA in Dresden and elsewhere – more than right-wing populism?

With the acronym PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident), a group of men began “walking” every Monday evening through the streets of Dresden, reaching at the top 25.000 participants in January. Beyond the undeniable anti-immigrant attitudes of many PEGIDA-adherents, there seems to be a general challenge to the concept of representative liberal democracy. The specificity of the movement was discussed by German political scientist Dr. Dietrich Herrmann on the expert seminar and in his subsequent analysis.

Democracy Disrupted. The Politics of Global Protest. Event with Ivan Krastev

Is protest a better instrument than elections for keeping elites accountable? Does the last wave of protests signal a radical change in the way politics will be practiced? Or are the protests all around the world simply a spectacular but ultimately insignificant eruption of public anger? Is it the technology, the economics, the mass psychology or just the zeitgeist that's caused this global explosion of revolt? Will it be the empowering energy of the protests or the conservative backlash against them that will shape the future of democratic politics?

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