Is it Worth the Risk? Grievances and Street Protest Participation During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chile

Autor: Sofía Donoso, Ismael Puga, Cristóbal Moya, Monica M. Gerber
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Politics in Latin America, Vol 14 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1866-802X
1868-4890
1866802X
DOI: 10.1177/1866802X221127712
Popis: The COVID-19 pandemic started in Chile as the country was experiencing massive protests and a deep political crisis. Sanitary measures restricting movement and gatherings were implemented while the process of constitutional change responding to this crisis developed. In this context of conflict, we study why people continued participating in street protests despite the restrictions and the health risks involved. Using two surveys, we test key factors addressed in extant scholarship: biographical availability, perceived risks, and grievances. We find that grievances related to the pandemic were the most important factor, while biographical availability was much less relevant in the pandemic context. There is no evidence that perceived health risks mattered when deciding whether to join a street protest or not. These results suggest that under conditions of political crisis, grievances related to the administration of the pandemic can motivate political participation even when the latter put people's health at risk.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals