The objective of this research is to empirically characterize the process of normalization of participants in demonstrations in Spain since the eighties. Specifically, we ask ourselves how the number of demonstrations and demonstrators has evolved; how his sociodemographic and political profile has changed; and how these trends relate to changes in the political context and, specifically, to the electoral dynamics. The answers to these questions have been developed, fundamentally, from the analysis of data from various surveys of the CIS to the population. The results indicate an increase in the number of demonstrations and, even more marked, of demonstrators. Spain has become one of the first democracies, if not the first, in terms of participation in demonstrations. Regarding the profile of the protester, the analysis points to a trend towards lower participatory inequality in terms of the sociodemographic and political variables traditionally considered as explanatory factors of political participation. The interpretation of these results points to the incidence both of the (structural) social and political transformations of advanced democratic societies and of the (short-term) effects of the dynamics of partisan competition proper to the Spanish context.
Manuel Jiménez Sánchez 