Citizens movements in the twenty-first century: Towards a conceptualization

Abstract

Protests and citizens movements contesting the very functioning of democracies have been erupting around the world, not only in countries considered as young democracies, but in those where democracy is more mature and established. This article addresses the contributions made by political theory to conceptualize these contemporary citizens movements. A selection of these contributions are reviewed in order to identify the features that authors attribute to these movements, including connective action, mass self-communication, rejection of traditional political mediations, singularity, narrative expression, and counter-democracy. To these is added the meta-democratic nature exhibited by some of these movements, which could in certain cases be described as post-social. A number of recent experiences are then analyzed in order to explore the nuances and distinctions that may be identified within the wide range of citizens movements that have taken place.