Winter 2020

The Power of Protest

Taking to the streets can change the course of history. But the stakes of protest are high – and the outcomes of mass action are uncertain.

in this issue:

Why Protest?

– S. Erdem Aytaç and Susan Stokes

2019 was a year of global protest. Was it democracy in action, or democracy in crisis?

Postcards from the Edge

– Cynthia Arnson, Benjamin Gedan, Michael Penfold, Rossana Castiglioni, Catalina Lobo-Guerrero, Augusto de la Torre, and Jim Shultz

A wave of protest swept Latin America in 2019. Country experts examine the common threads – as well as the unique factors at play in each nation.

The Step-by-Step Revolution

– Cătălin Teniţă

Romanians took to the streets to make change at the ballot box. An inside account of how two years of peaceful protest won the day.

Protest Tech: Hong Kong

– Richard Byrne and Michael C. Davis

A survey of the technology that is driving a movement.

Protests and Principles

– Srdja Popovic

Can the organizing principles of nonviolence help make sense of the wave of 2019 protests – and even predict which ones might succeed?

Speech in a Low Dishonest Decade

– Lisa Marie Anderson

Universities tried to ban antifascist speakers in the 1930s. Madison Square Garden hosted U.S. Nazis. What can we learn from this history?

Protest and the Muse

– Richard Byrne

The Velvet Revolution and an American graduate student inspired Bohumil Hrabal -- one of Central Europe's greatest writers -- to create a classic work on the collision of politics and art.