Politics of Emotions and Protest under Authoritarianism

Session Submission Type: Created Panel

Session Description

In studying the social and psychological dynamics of contentious politics in authoritarian regimes, scholars have long raised important questions about the role of emotions and affect in mobilizing grievances. They rightly underscore the significance of emotions, however, they retreated before the difficulty of studying its affective dynamics. In this panel, we examine affect and more broadly the psychology of protest and repression in authoritarian contexts. The papers survey how affect and its dynamics instill collective emotions and ascribe different modes of political actions and inaction. A focus on affect and its dynamics is an important area that is worth further investigation, as it allows researchers to analyse the complex field of activism and resistance following episodes of failed expectations and defeated cycles of contentions. The work discussed on this panel speak to the “Democracy, Difference, and Destabilization” theme of APSA 2020 in a number of ways. In focusing on affect, the authors explore how individuals can overcome difference to mobilize collectively for democratization under repressive conditions. By surveying the role of affects and its dynamics in different episodes of contentions, the panel contributes to explaining differences in protest diffusion, collective mobilization, and political inaction during and following episodes of contentious politics, with implications for the political success of protest in winning concessions.

Sub Unit

• Division 5: Political Psychology

Individual Presentations

• Affective Encounters: Hope and Women’s Groups in Egypt - Nermin Allam, Rutgers University

• How Propaganda Manipulates Emotion to Fuel Nationalism: Evidence from China - Daniel Mattingly, Yale University; Elaine Yao, Princeton University

• Depression, Disappointment & Democratic Values after Defeated Revolution - Elizabeth R. Nugent, Yale University; Michael Thomas Hoffman, University of Notre Dame

• Fear or Fury: How Mobilizing Emotions Explains the Diffusion of Revolt - Silvana A. Toska, Davidson College

Chair

• Adrienne LeBas American University

Discussant

• Lauren E Young University of California, Davis