Street mobilisation during election campaigns in multilevel systems: a supply–demand analysis

Lennart Schürmann and Leonhard Schmidt

EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, 2026, issue Latest Articles, 14 pages

Abstract: Election campaigns are periods of heightened political competition and opportunities for change. This research note examines whether such politicisation leads to increased street mobilisation, both in terms of who organises (supply) and who participates (demand). On the supply side, a 'professionalisation' of protest is expected, with more active institutional political and civil society actors. On the demand side, participation should rise. Relying on original protest event data from Germany (2000-2023), the analysis shows that campaign periods boost protest overall. Yet responses vary by election level: all groups mobilise most during first-order national elections. Regarding second-order elections, civil society actors and citizens respond more to subnational elections, suggesting localised protest dynamics, while institutional political actors focus on EU elections. This study adds to understanding how multi-level governance shapes 'unconventional' political behaviour and highlights the alignment and divergence between citizen activism and elite strategies during election campaigns.

Keywords: protest; election campaigns; multilevel systems; citizen-elite congruence; civil society (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/337874/1/F ... eet-mobilisation.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:espost:337874

DOI: 10.1080/01402382.2026.2634027

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().