Overcoming the Protestor’s Dilemma: How Teacher Strikes Demobilize Opponents

November 2024

The “Protestor’s Dilemma” refers to the paradox faced by protestors where their disruptive actions, while necessary to gain public attention and support, could potentially provoke backlash and weaken the very support they seek to gain. How can protestors overcome this dilemma? Teacher strikes point toward a potential path forward. To examine how strikes impact political behavior, we use an original, hand-collected dataset of teacher strikes from 2007-2020, combined with voter turnout information. We use a differences-in-differences approach, finding that teacher strikes demobilize opponents (in this case, Republican voters). Notably, they do so without violence or long-running shutdowns that might countermobilize third parties. Such non-violent, short disruptions may provide a pathway to overcoming the protestor’s dilemma.

Keywords

protest, voting, strikes, teachers

Education level

K-12 Education

Topics

Policy, Politics, and Governance