From ballot boxes to traffic circles and back again: Motives, limits, and effects of the Yellow Vests’ political participation

This article contributes to research on ordinary political participation. Through the case of the Yellow Vests movement in France, it sheds light on the relationship between representative, direct, and participatory democracy, with a particular focus on the effects of protest participation on the relationship with politics—notably the electoral system—and vice versa. Using a primarily qualitative approach based on around fifteen interviews, we first show that a frustrated attachment to political representation in electoral terms contributed to the citizenist orientation of the protest movement, which was concerned with securing recognition for workers and the ability to hold elected officials accountable. In turn, the gradual suppression of the protest spurred a retreat to the ballot box and even prompted opposition—either openly or covertly—to the same political adversaries, without precluding new protests in the streets. Political participation is thus analyzed “from below,” in its multiplicity and interconnected forms, which can only be fully grasped as milestones initiating and resulting from processes of politicization.