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5 Issue Divides in the Protest Arena: The Big Picture The next two chapters focus on the issues and demands raised by protestors. By studying issue divides, we come closer to seeing whether and how the integration–demarcation cleavage has transformed protest politics. I highlight both the salience of issues and differing issue positions, because the term divide “effectively captures the notion of distinct sides” (Deegan-Krause 2007, 539). As argued in chapter 1, issue divides lie at the heart of a perspective that takes the role of contemporary political conflicts in the perpetuation and transformation of cleavages seriously (Bornschier 2010a, 53–70). In line with a twofold transformation, left-libertarian challengers and their demands for cultural liberalism are expected to be most salient during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Since the 1990s, in contrast, conflicts over economic, cultural, and political globalization should be on the rise. Although social movement scholars increasingly turn to conflicts over globalization issues, they mainly take a cross-sectional look at single-issue fields or movements (for example, Balme and Chabanet 2008; della Porta 2007b; Koopmans et al. 2005). This book attempts to move forward by tracing the salience of, and positions taken on, these issues during thirty-one years in six European countries, as well as by studying how salient the globalization issues are relative to each other, to cultural liberalism (the main issue of the left-libertarian round), and to more traditional issues. The present chapter focuses on cross-arena differences and looks at the overall averages for the six countries. The big picture based on the six countries is instructive, but it also conceals interesting cross-national differences. Therefore, chapter 6 shows how the issue divides vary across the six countries. 79 80 issue divides in the protest arena: the Big Picture The present chapter, on the big picture, is divided into four sections. To begin with, I introduce two contrasting expectations on how the integration– demarcation cleavage leaves its imprint on protest politics. Both expectations assume that globalization issues have become more salient in the protest arena since the 1990s. However, one expectation emphasizes opposition against economic globalization, while the other expectation emphasizes support for cultural globalization as the main motive for change in the protest arena. These expectations are tested in three steps. First, the analysis focuses on the salience of, and the average positions taken on, cultural and economic issues. This allows us to answer the questions of which issue dimensions and ideological orientations prevail in protest politics and whether we observe any changes over time. Second, closer look is taken at the more specific issue categories (especially cultural liberalism and the three globalization issues). Here, we come closest to assessing the impact of the integration–demarcation cleavage on protest politics. Finally, the rise of the globalization issues in electoral and protest politics is compared to investigate the differing ways in which the rise of the integration–demarcation cleavage has transformed the two arenas of mass mobilization. Note that in chapters 5 and 6, on issue divides, the relative share of protest events and the number of participants per million inhabitants are used to compare the salience of an issue across countries. I do not take into account the absolute number of protest events coded per issue because this measure depends very much on the size of the country and the number of big or important cities. Thus, it is less useful for comparative research. Resistance to Economic Globalization or Support for Cultural Globalization? In the literature, two contrasting expectations on how the integration– demarcation cleavage might have affected the issue divides in the protest arena can be found. Both emphasize that globalization issues have become salient since the 1990s, but they differ with regard to the driving motive for change. I label the first expectation “resistance to economic globalization” and the second one “support for cultural globalization.” Both expectations can be linked to the way the integration–demarcation cleavage has restructured electoral politics and to the conceptual discussion about protest politics and electoral politics. The economic resistance expectation figures prominently in the literature on the global justice movement (for example, Bandler and Giugni 2008; della Porta 2007b; Fillieule 2007). This expectation maintains that neoliberal globalization (or alternatively, global justice) should be a very salient protest issue, because there are no strong challengers in the electoral arena that consistently and forcefully oppose economic globalization.Thus, the protest arena [18.191.157.186] Project MUSE (2024-04-18 20...

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