The 2019 Chilean Social Upheaval: A Descriptive Approach
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Date
2023
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Abstract
In 2019, student protests over an increase in subway fare in Chile escalated into violenceand a leaderless nationwide social upheaval. This research note takes a descriptiveapproach that goes beyond the protester/non-protesters dichotomy, because we believewe need a richer understanding of the“what, who, and how”of citizens around this out-break. Based on a surveyfielded amidst the upheaval, we distinguish protesters by inten-sity, and non-protesters by their position towards the upheaval. As expected, protesterstend to be young and educated. Strong protesters are more left-wing, interested in pol-itics, and more participative, including electorally. They endorse democracy but are crit-ical of its functioning, and more likely to justify illegal/violent actions as a means for socialchange. Inequality appears as a cross-cutting concern, even among opponents, butstrong protesters are more distrustful of its sources and of the rich themselves. We con-clude by discussing the implications of thesefindings