The demobilizing effect of violent actions and radical-right involvement on public support for protest

How does radicality affect public support for protest? Despite a long-standing scholarly debate about the demobilizing power of radicality, empirical evidence beyond the use of violent action and left-libertarian social movements remains scarce. Therefore, this article advances the debate by examining the effects of two forms of radicality, violent forms of protest and radical protest actors, in the context of a right-authoritarian movement. We employ a novel and comprehensive multistep research design to study these theoretical expectations, integrating original survey and natural experimental evidence. Empirically, we draw on the case of the anti-containment protests in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic, emblematic of the rise of right-authoritarian social movements in contemporary democracies. We examine the role of demonstrator-instigated violence and radical-right involvement in demobilizing sympathizers and likely participants. The empirical findings show that, in contrast to left-libertarian movements, individuals strongly committed to the cause are likely to continue to take to the streets regardless of the presence of violence and radical-right actors. The findings suggest adverse diminishing demobilization effects of radicality in contemporary democracies, which are less pronounced for individuals close to right-authoritarian movements.