Why Do People Engage in Unlawful Political Protest? Examining the Role of Authoritarianism in Illegal Protest Behavior

Abstract

Prior research on individual-level drivers of protest has primarily focused on legal protest. However, less is known about what makes people engage in unlawful protest activities. Building upon previous literature on the collective action dilemma, socialization on violent and high-risk social movements, and political psychology, we expect that illegal protest frequency varies at different levels of authoritarianism. We explore the relationship between authoritarian values and illegal protest by analyzing a two-wave panel survey data gathered in the US. The results of cross-sectional, lagged, and autoregressive ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models show that when controlling for legal protest and other relevant variables in protest behavior, authoritarianism predicts illegal protest following an inverted U-shaped relationship. In other words, average levels of authoritarianism predict more frequent engagement in illegal protest, while this frequency decreases as approaching the poles of the authoritarianism scale.

Authoritarian Opposition? Authoritarian Disposition and Resistance to Public Health Mitigation Strategies During COVID-19

“…Gutting (2020), for instance, finds that protests against law enforcement leaders decreases support for protest movements among authoritarians. Other research shows that individuals exhibiting high levels of authoritarianism are less likely to engage in protests (Inguanzo, Mateos, and de Zuniga, 2022) and less likely to engage in collective action more generally (Weiner and Federico, 2017). Consequently, existing studies have suggested that the combination of authoritarians’ sensitivity to pandemic threats coupled with their obedience to authority translate into higher support for restrictive mitigation policies (Bochiccio et al, 2021; Manson, 2020; Peng, 2021).…”