Gen Z protests: Political leverage or just loud feelings?

Across the world, Gen Z are showing up in the streets. From mass demonstrations to sudden protest waves, young people are repeatedly mobilizing against governments they see as unresponsive, corrupt, or simply irrelevant to their lives. But a harder question lingers beneath the headlines: do these protests actually achieve anything?In this episode, Prof. Caitriona Raleigh and Dr Caitriona Dowd discuss the political impact of contemporary Gen Z protest. Pushing back against both romanticized narratives and dismissive takes, they argue that youth protest itself isn’t new, what’s new is how consistently governments seem able to ignore it. The conversation unpacks why many Gen Z movements are described as “annoying” rather than threatening, and what that label reveals about how power responds to disruption without leverage.Rather than framing young people as uniquely apathetic or disconnected from politics, the episode places Gen Z protest in a longer historical pattern: every generation protests when formal political channels stop delivering. So why do these protests keep happening if outcomes are so limited? And what would it actually take for Gen Z mobilization to translate into lasting political influence?#GenZ #YouthProtests #PoliticalParticipation #GlobalProtestsFor more conversations like this, subscribe to Conflicts of Interest and watch the full episode on YouTube. Conflicts of Interest: https://www.youtube.com/@ConflictsOfInterestACLED📱 Did you know you can follow Conflicts of Interest on TikTok?