The Success and Failure of Protest Movements

Harvard FAS

Protest is an important force for change throughout the world. Protest movements can pressure political leaders to reform policy, bring previously hidden or marginalized issues into the spotlight, and occasionally develop into the kinds of people-power movements that upend regimes. This class grapples with two related questions. First, what does it mean for a protest to succeed or fail? Second, why do some protests achieve success and others do not? The class…