Na próxima quinta-feira (29/05) Susan Stokes (Yale) estará na USP para apresentar seu trabalho Social Movements and the Paradox of Repression. A partir das últimas mobilizações populares no Brasil, na Turquia e na Ucrânica, Stokes pretende explicar a lógica da participação política frente à (provável) repressão dos regimes.
Why do people participate in costly collective actions in which their individual participation is unlikely to change the outcome? We introduce the idea of “costly abstention” – that in certain situations abstaining from an action (e.g., joining protests) can be subjectively costly, even when one's taking part will not change the outcome. We argue that a drive to avoid unpleasant psychic tensions associated with abstention from participation lies behind many people’s decisions to join social movements. Our theory puts forward an explanation for the paradox of repression – the observation that many people become more likely to join protests when governments increase repressive measures, presumably to increase the costs of participation. When governments ratchet up repression, some people are more inclined to join protests because observing disproportionate repression generates discomfort in staying at home. We provide observational and experimental evidence for our theory from recent protest movements in Turkey, Brazil, Ukraine, and Morocco.
