Marvin E. Olsen

Perceived Legitimacy of Social Protest Actions

A scale to measure the extent to which respondents grant legitimacy to various types of social protest actions—such as strikes, sit-ins, and demonstrations—was devised and tested in a population composed largely of “upper-middle class” urban whites. Education, occupation, and income were all directly correlated with acceptance of protest activities, age was inversely related, men were more accepting than women, Democrats more than Independents or Republicans, and two types of political alienation were inversely correlated with tolerance of these actions. Multi-variate analysis revealed that, under extensively controlled conditions, the variable of education remained the strongest predictor of protest action scores, but in a curvilinear fashion. The two political alienation scales were the next strongest correlates under these controlled conditions, followed by age and political preference.