Protests seem contagious when they erupt in several countries at the same time. But new research shows that unrest rarely spreads. It’s protest symbols, like France’s yellow vests, that go global.
Garret Martin, American University School of International Service
President Emmanuel Macron has presented himself as a defender of the liberal order against the rising tide of right-wing populism. But he can’t lead Europe while mass protests have France in crisis.
There’s an orderly fashion to so-called disruptive “manifestations”, as they’re called in French. But the “gilets jaunes” didn’t follow the rules. So who exactly broke the rules?
A populist movement that threatened to topple a French government more than 60 years ago has important lessons for today’s protests and why they represent a reckoning.
What do the Carlos Ghosn scandal, the rising power of algorithms and the “gilets jaunes” have in common? The need to extend the spatial and temporal definitions of responsibility.