Mobilizing Grievances in an Authoritarian Setting: Threat and Emotion in the 1953 Plzeň Uprising

Abstract

Material and physical threat can play a crucial role in the emergence of protest, yet few studies have explored the micro-level mechanisms that transform threat into collective action under repressive conditions. We address this gap by connecting the mobilizing power of grievances to the emotional dynamics of collective action in the context of a 1953 uprising in Communist Czechoslovakia. Following economic reforms that wiped out citizens' savings, several thousand workers in the industrial city of Plzeň took to the streets in protest. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews, our analysis shows how structural and incidental grievances can become a mobilizing force for high-risk activism. We find that the class position of protesters influenced their preexisting affective state and reactive response to the reform. As a result, class background helped to shape protesters' motivations, actions, and goals. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future research.

How Threats of Exclusion Mobilize Palestinian Political Participation

“…We theorize that the threat of being targeted by an exclusionary policy can create or rekindle political grievances (Beissinger 2011;Jasper 2011;Simmons 2014) that increase mobilizing emotions (Petersen 2002;Valentino et al 2011;Van Zomeren 2013), as well as other instrumental and expressive motivations for collective action (Bray, Shriver, and Adams 2019;Goldstone and Tilly 2001;Pearlman 2018;Schuessler 2000Schuessler , 2021. Our theoretical expectations are rooted in a rich literature on the determinants of collective action (Jasper 2011;Petersen 2002;Schuessler 2000;Valentino et al 2011;Wood and Goodwin 2001) and an understanding that similar motivations may drive diverse forms of political participation, including voting and protest (Aytaç and Stokes 2019;Bueno de Mesquita and Shadmehr n.d.).…”

“…Existing research differentiates between structural and incidental grievances (Bray, Shriver, and Adams 2019).…”

“…1 Specifically, we argue that the threat of being targeted by an exclusionary policy can create, or resurface, political grievances (Beissinger 2011;Jasper 2011;Simmons 2014). In turn, these grievances increase citizens' mobilizing emotions such as anger (Valentino et al 2011;Van Zomeren 2013), indignation (Costalli and Ruggeri 2015), and resentment (Petersen 2002), which inform instrumental (Alimi 2007;Bray, Shriver, and Adams 2019;Burden and Wichowsky 2014;Goldstone and Tilly 2001) and expressive motivations for collective action (Pearlman 2018;Schuessler 2000Schuessler , 2021.…”

“…In turn, these grievances increase citizens’ mobilizing emotions such as anger (Valentino et al. 2011; Van Zomeren 2013), indignation (Costalli and Ruggeri 2015), and resentment (Petersen 2002), which inform instrumental (Alimi 2007; Bray, Shriver, and Adams 2019; Burden and Wichowsky 2014; Goldstone and Tilly 2001) and expressive motivations for collective action (Pearlman 2018; Schuessler 2000, 2021).…”

Pride and Protest: Horizontal and Vertical Emotional Response in the Aftermath of the 2019 Chilean Spring

“…Following studies on the revival of emotions in the cultural analysis of social movements (Bray, Shriver, and Adams 2018; Coe and Schnabel 2011; Goodwin, Jasper, and Polletta 2000; Jasper 1998, 2011, 2014b), these emotions have been isolated as causal mechanisms of willingness or actual engagement in collective actions (e.g., DeCelles, Sonenshein, and King 2019; Thomas et al 2020; Weber, Mummendey, and Waldzus 2002). Thus, the importance of prior emotions as triggers of social mobilization underlines the challenges of identifying the reverse effect, namely, protests’ effects on the emotions of the general population.…”