France has experienced violent protests for several weeks now. It began with the government’s changes to pension plans by raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. The French are very sensitive about work-life issues and the change sparked a series of protests from March through May that, apart from strikes disrupting public transport, included street battles with police, setting fire to buildings and parked cars, vandalizing property, etc., in cities all around the country.

Another issue revived the violence. When police recently shot and killed a teenage driver hurrying away from them at a traffic stop in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, it set off violent protests in many towns including Marseille, Rheims and Lyon. The home of a mayor was set fire to. Public shock and anger was expressed by setting fire to municipal and commercial buildings, burning a bus depot, and vandalizing a shopping mall. As the victim was of Algerian descent, racism now jumped in as a cause along with pension issues.

The US also has had its share of violent protests. On January 6, 2021, supporters of Donald Trump who had lost the 2020 presidential election attacked the Capitol (i.e., parliament) building with the objective of overturning the election result believing it was fraudulent. Damage was caused to the building and to offices within. Demonstrations and protests took place in many state capitals also. Racial unrest also regularly causes violent protest leading to destruction of property, the most recent one being that following the death of George Floyd in May 2020.

France and the US swear by the democracy they live by. It is enshrined in their constitutions, and they would recommend it to other countries as the preferred political system. The US tried to institute democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan following its invasions. French soldiers are often called upon to protect democratic governments in their former African colonies.

Why democracy? Among other benefits, it is considered superior because it gives people a voice in running the government. Minority views are represented in the houses of parliament and in theory, debates bring about a compromise and resolution of differences. Now if democracy is working the way it should, do we need such violent protests?

A paradox

Political scientists are hard pressed to explain this paradox. The best they can come up with is to say that street protests in a democracy is an expression of the rivalry of political parties and efforts to draw attention to their agenda, while protests in an autocracy is a challenge to the regime. Huh? Political scientists need to ponder why even in a democracy some groups feel their voices are not being heard unless they bring violence to the streets. Maybe it boils down to just our individual values — just as some disagreements are verbal and others lead to fisticuffs. We are regularly reminded of this by the peculiarly US practice of random individuals who regularly barge into schools and places of worship killing anyone they can see.

When Gandhi called off his non-cooperation protest in India in 1922 on account of the burning of a police station in Chauri Chaura and deaths of several people, many among the leadership disagreed with him. But violence had no place in his book and he struggled with the idea till the end for he often found even close supporters could not distinguish the moral standard he was trying to adhere to and saw his actions in terms of political expediency. With violence so much in our lives, in our entertainment, and in our methods of solving global problems, violent protests in democracies are perhaps par for the course.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech to the Joint Session of the US Congress mentioned the word ‘democracy’ 14 times to stress how the US and India share common values represented by democracy. And violence?

If mature democracies like the US and France are themselves subject to sporadic street violence by protestors, where should emerging and transition societies look for models to follow?

The writer is an emeritus professor at Suffolk University, Boston

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