What is driving our “age of rage”? What explains the upsurge in collective protests?
One of the signal events in global politics in the last decade has been the transformation of political and civic activism, argues Carnegie analyst Richard Youngs, an expert on the foreign policy of the European Union, notably on aspects of democracy assistance.
Not only is the new activism qualitatively different in character from what it was in 2000; its intensity and frequency have dramatically increased, he writes in Civic Activism Unleashed. Activists are developing a new type of civic movement, applying innovative forms of direct action against governments and often operating without leaders or even any well-defined set of aims, he contends.
