When Protest Makes Policy: How Social Movements Represent Disadvantaged Groups.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Date: 01 January 2012
• Author: Reid, Sophie

When Protest Makes Policy: How Social Movements Represent Disadvantaged Groups

S. Laurel Weldon, Ann Arbour, University of Michigan Press, 2011. 231pp.

ISBN 9780472117482

$113.99 (hardcover)

The introduction of When Protest Makes Policy opens with reference to the 1999 'Battle in Seattle' protest against the World Trade Organisation, and the claims made then by the protesters to represent the marginalised people of the world. More than ten years on, this book has been published in a year virtually book-ended by eruptions of high-profile civil society protest movements--most notably the uprisings across the Middle East and the 'Occupy' protest movement throughout the US and other countries--calling for the establishment or reinvigoration of democratic processes. This book is therefore timely in its meticulous examination of the role of social movements in enriching those processes.

Whereas the bulk of work on social movements focuses on their role in increasing participation, Weldon breaks new ground by instead considering their role in terms of representation. The basic argument of the book is that social movements play an important role in representing disadvantaged groups politically, and therefore these groups should be formally encouraged to self-organise. In opposition to the view that the presence of group members in the legislature is always the most effective way for disadvantaged groups to influence policy, Weldon demonstrates that the more disadvantaged a group is, the more important civil society representation becomes to their...