Faţetele multiple ale nemulţumirii populare: o schiţă sociologică a protestelor din Piaţa Universităţii din ianuarie 2012
The Multiple Facets of Popular Discontent: A Sociological Outline of the January 2012 Protests from Bucharest’s University Square

Summary/Abstract: This article addresses the January 2012 protests from Bucharest, Romania. Due to the protesters’ high social diversity, their numerous themes of discontent, and their rejection of all current politicians, these protests have been compared to Spain’s “Indignados” movement. I analyze these protests from the standpoint of the theories of collective behavior, outlining their features, duration, and degree of organization. I contend that, although these demonstrations might have contained the seeds of future social and political movements, the January 2012 events could be understood properly as a form of collective behavior. I offer a structural explanation for the emergence of these protests, and I discuss the heterogeneity of protesters and their themes using the tools of typological procedures (social types). These social types are constructed by taking into account the individuals’ experience of participation in other public protests. I also address the similarities and differences between these protests and other demonstrations, such as those from 1990 in Romania or the recent protests from Spain. As compared to the Spanish protests, the Romanian demonstrations have involved significantly fewer individuals – a fact that is linked to local polity forms, social atomization, generalized distrust, and low civic participation. Despite all this, the Romanian protests have generated a series of political changes which culminated in the resignation of the Prime Minister Emil Boc and his cabinet. While the opposition parties are likely to capitalize on the Romanians’ discontent with the former main ruling party, populist, extremist, and anti-system political forces might also gain public support by exploiting the citizens’ widespread distrust in current politicians and Parliament.

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