HCV Annual Lecture: Direct Action, Protest and Democracy

Across the globe, many polities are currently marked by the eruption of ‘direct action’ campaigns: for environmental protection, for peace, and against racial, gender and class inequality. People march, demonstrate, disrupt, occupy and boycott. Conflicts around ‘direct action’ and ‘democracy’ have a long history, seldom referenced in contemporary political argument.

In this lecture, Professor Sean Scalmer traces that history from the 1890s until the present, showing that the tension between insurgent protest and formal authority is not new. It also establishes that the prevailing meanings of ‘direct action’ and ‘democracy’ have changed over time, as each has shaped the other. A historical perspective also suggests a practical conclusion: attempts to limit and restrict protest threaten the vitality of democracy, along with its capacity for renewal.

Sean Scalmer is a Professor of History at the University of Melbourne, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.