Why People Protest: The Resource, Structural and Cultural Bases of Protest.

This paper examines the level of political protest in contemporary societies, and then explains cross-national differences in the use of protest. We first use data from the 1999-2002 and 1995-98 waves of the World Values Survey to describe the cross-national levels of protest to an extent that has not previously been possible. Then, we review the literature to explain cross-national variation in protest levels and derive a series of hypotheses to explain cross-national levels of protest.. The results, we believe, provide the richest empirical evidence yet available on the actual use of protest across a nearly global range of nations. In addition, by evaluating past theories on the national level influences on protest, we develop a richer understanding of the role of protest in patterns of contemporary citizen action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]