Clarifying the Ideological Asymmetry in Public Attitudes Toward Political Protest

• Date: 01 March 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/1532673X20975329
• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X20975329

American Politics Research

2021, Vol. 49(2) 157 –170

© The Author(s) 2020

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/1532673X20975329

journals.sagepub.com/home/apr

Article

The right to petition is a 1st Amendment safeguard against

tyranny and an important instrument of social change (e.g.,

Branton et al., 2015; Gamson, 1975; Gillion, 2012; Madestam

et al., 2013; Piven & Cloward, 1979; Wallace et al., 2014).

However, its efficacy depends upon mass perceptions of

legitimacy (e.g., Agnone, 2007; Chenoweth & Stephan,

2012; Jeffries et al., 1971; Kernell, 1986; Lee, 2002;

McAdams et al., 2001; Schattschneider, 1960; Schumaker,

1975; Stern et al., 1999).

Thus, it is important to understand the variance in mass

attitudes toward political protest. Alas, though studies of

political tolerance are abundant (for classic treatments, see

Bobo, 1988; Bobo & Licari, 1989; Gibson, 1992; Stouffer,

1955; Sullivan et al., 1981), studies of protest attitudes are

relatively scarce (but see Herrnson & Weldon, 2017;

McCright & Dunlap, 2008; Mohamed, 2013). At first glance,

the latter may appear to be a subset of the former, but they are

not; whereas tolerance is the willingness to put up with

expressions that one considers repugnant (e.g., Gibson,

1992; Stouffer, 1955; Sullivan et al., 1981), protest support is

the embrace of collective action to redress perceived injus-

tices. By extension, tolerance may not necessarily require the

populist impulses that protest support does, and protest sup-

port may not necessarily require the libertarian impulses that

tolerance does.1 Therefore, focused examinations of protest

attitudes, specifically, are critical to understanding why some

protest movements succeed and others to fail.

The limited research on this subject suggests that support for

protests tends to be weaker on the ideological Right (e.g., Hall

et al., 1986; McCright & Dunlap, 2008; Olsen, 1968). However,

it is not clear whether such ostensible ideological asymmetry is

authentic or artifactual. Given the tendency of previous studies

to rely exclusively on liberal protest case studies—especially

the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement, Anti-

Vietnam demonstrations, the Environmental Movement, or the

2006 Latino Immigration rallies (see Barreto et al., 2009;

Benjamin-Alvarado et al., 2009; Branton et al., 2015; Martinez,

2008; Mohamed, 2013; Pantoja et al., 2008; Rim, 2009; Wright

& Citrin, 2010)—it is conceivable that the disproportionately

conservative antipathy toward protests that researchers have

tended to observe is entirely a byproduct of case selection,

reflecting heightened conservative antipathy toward liberals and

particular liberal causes.2 Furthermore, if such ideological

asymmetry in protest attitudes is indeed authentic, it is not clear

whether such asymmetry varies depending on (a) the specific

issue content of political protests, or (b) the nature of what we

mean, exactly, by “ideological.”

In this investigation, we analyze the ways in which the ideo-

logical and issue contents of a particular protest movement

interact with different conceptualizations of liberalism-conser-

vatism—ideological identification or two of the foremost psy-

chological constructs that undergird it: authoritarianism or

social dominance orientation—to affect perceptions of protest

975329APRXXX10.1177/1532673X20975329American Politics ResearchBarker et al.

research-article2020

1American University, Washington, DC, USA

2California State University Sacramento, Sacramento, USA

Corresponding Author:

David Barker, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, 234

Kerwin Hall, Washington, DC 20016-8007, USA.

Email: dbarker@american.edu

Clarifying the Ideological Asymmetry in

Public Attitudes Toward Political Protest

David Barker1, Kimberly Nalder2, and Jessica Newham2

Abstract

Political protests cannot succeed without public support. Extant studies point to weaker average support among ideological

conservatives, but researchers have yet to consider the extent to which such apparent ideological asymmetry is (a) an

artifact of the particular protest cases that researchers have tended to investigate, and/or (b) conditioned by the precise

meaning of “ideological conservatism.” In this investigation, we address these gaps. Specifically, we analyze public perceptions

of protest legitimacy after exposing survey respondents to one of a series of experimental treatments that randomize the

specific ideological and issue contents of the particular protests under consideration. In iterative models, we observe how

political ideology, social dominance orientation and authoritarianism condition the effects associated with these experimental

treatments. The data suggest that that the notorious ideological asymmetry that is often associated with support for protests

is authentic, but it is also conditioned in important ways by these other factors.

Keywords

political protest, attitudes, ideology, authoritarianism, social dominance orientation