The 2023-24 Center for Inter-American Policy and Research Speaker Series: Violence, Inequality and Democracy in the Americas, explores challenges to democratic politics and effective governance in the region. Speakers will present cutting-edge research on the politics of criminal violence and civil conflict, protest movements, militarization, and democratic backsliding in diverse countries of Latin America. The Series engages students, faculty, and community members in dialogue on the most pressing issues facing the region today. This week’s talk will be given by Kai Thaler from UC Santa Barbara on the topic “Protest and Repression in the Shadow of History in Nicaragua and Chile”.
How do historical analogies shape contemporary political attitudes and behavior? Historical framing--drawing parallels between past and present events or actors--can mobilize protesters and keep them politically engaged in the face of unpopular policies and violent repression through both psychological and social pathways of persuasion. In co-authored research based on interviews, event data, and media reporting, we show how Nicaraguan and Chilean activists and citizens came to see their presidents and security forces as repeating reviled dictatorships’ behavior, making clear the importance of protesting against them. Through a survey experiment, we also demonstrate that historical framing can remain useful after protests have subsided, increasing Chilean respondents’ support for police reform a year later, though frames must be carefully targeted to be most effective.
