… One way to understand unrest is to talk to peaceful protesters. These are activists that have taken time to try to make a difference on some issue. They have chosen to do so peacefully. But many of them have at least considered that, under certain circumstances, they might expand their repertoire to include property damage or other more contentious actions. Indeed, splinter groups from otherwise peaceful movements may form an organizational basis for deploying political violence.
To understand these motivations better, I conducted surveys of randomly selected participants at all of the large political demonstrations held on weekend days in Washington, DC in 2017 and 2018. I fielded surveys at 6 right-leaning events (such as the March for Life and the March for Trump) and 18 left-leaning events (such as the Women’s March and the March for Racial Justice). CONT.
Michael Heaney (U. of Michigan & U. of Glasgow), Mischiefs of Faction
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