Do political protests mobilize voters? Evidence from the Black Lives Matter protests

Oliver Engist () and Felix Schafmeister ()
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Oliver Engist: Stockholm School of Economics
Felix Schafmeister: Stockholm School of Economics

Public Choice, 2022, vol. 193, issue 3, No 10, 293-313

Abstract: Abstract In this article, we study the local political mobilization effects of political protests in the context of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. We analyze monthly voter registration data from 2136 US counties across 32 states, leveraging variation in the exposure to BLM protests across counties in a two-way fixed-effects framework with a matched control group. In contrast to previous studies, which reported substantial mobilization effects of local protests in other contexts, we show that voter registrations in the aggregate were insensitive to the presence of local BLM protests. We further disentangle the effects along party lines and the degree to which protests were associated with violent behaviors and find similarly insignificant effects. We present some preliminary evidence that the large scale of the protests and their extensive news coverage might have reduced the importance of experiencing a protest firsthand.

Keywords: Political protests; Voting; Black Lives Matter; Voter registration; Election (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D74 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11127-022-00998-y

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