Published In

Youth and Globalization

Document Type

Pre-Print

Publication Date

12-30-2020

Subjects

Youth -- United States -- Attitudes, Political violence, Radicalization, Right-wing extremists, Anti-fascist movements, Social Justice -- Study and teaching

Abstract

With the rise of right-wing populist ideologies and ensuing social polarization, political violence has become more widespread. Between 2017 and 2019, far-right extremists and anti-fascists engaged in more than twenty violent protest clashes in Portland, Oregon, USA. Through a protest event analysis of those clashes supplemented with a case study of the protest wave, this paper explores how the mechanisms of radicalization and de-radicalization operate when two violent protest movements collide and interact with state security forces. The three-way interaction among a movement, counter-movement, and the police can produce unanticipated outcomes. For example, rather than de-escalating the situation, police underbidding resulted in an increase in violence between the two movements. Understanding how the mechanisms of radicalization and de-radicalization function in a movement/counter-movement protest cycle can provide insight into the ways in which a movement’s strategy and their adversaries’ responses to it can increase or decrease levels of violence.

Rights

This is an original manuscript of an article published by Brill in Youth and Globalization on December 30, 2020, available at:
https://doi.org/10.1163/25895745-02020004

DOI

10.1163/25895745-02020004

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/38669

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