Currently, there are social movements and protests all over the world, like the occupy Wall Street movement in the United States, the current student movements in Amsterdam or the Penguin...Show moreCurrently, there are social movements and protests all over the world, like the occupy Wall Street movement in the United States, the current student movements in Amsterdam or the Penguin Revolution (Student protests for free education) in Chile. The research paper analyzes the current student movement in Chile because it is important to conceptualize the characteristics of this movement in order to understand what motivates it. Therefore, the research question; ‘To what extent can the Chilean Student movement since 2006 be considered a populist movement, rather than a new social movement?’, is answered. The paper reaches the conclusion that the Chilean student movement could rather be considered a populist movement than a New Social Movement, as indicated by the fact that the Chilean case has 15 matching characteristics with the theory of populist movements. In Chapter 1, this article discussed the literature on New Social Movements and populist movement theories. Some characteristics are more important than others, like the organization or the charismatic leader. Those variables evolved over time, which means that the movement might have started out as a new social movement but is a populist one by now. The use of new social media is also very important for the Chilean protesters because this makes the movement very organized.Show less
