Analyses of the 2014 protest in Burkina Faso have predominantly focused on some of the movement’s major activists, to the neglect of ordinary citizens. Yet, while citizens’ participation in Burkina Faso in 2014 echoed to some extent the agendas of activists, it built on citizens’ own political subjectivities. Drawing on original interviews and Afrobarometer survey data, we show that Burkinabè citizens were motivated to protest by unmet expectations of the ‘good state’, as experienced in their daily existence in the sense of hardship and unequal treatment by the political system. These expectations and aspirations reflected citizens’ deeper political beliefs or political subjectivities, as already expressed in years prior to the 2014 political crisis. Overall, the article shows how looking at protest from the bottom-up can shift our understanding of political mobilization and its motives: citizen protest constitutes its own political phenomenon, in Burkina Faso and beyond, and should not be subsumed by analyses largely derived from speaking to major activists.

中文翻译：

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2014 年布基纳法索抗议期间的公民参与：渴望一个“好国家”

对 2014 年布基纳法索抗议活动的分析主要集中在该运动的一些主要活动人士身上，而忽视了普通公民。然而，尽管 2014 年布基纳法索公民的参与在一定程度上呼应了活动家的议程，但它建立在公民自身的政治主观性之上。根据原始采访和非洲晴雨表调查数据，我们表明，布基纳法索公民的抗议动机是对“好国家”的期望未得到满足，因为他们在日常生活中经历了政治制度的苦难和不平等待遇。这些期望和愿望反映了公民更深层次的政治信仰或政治主体性，正如 2014 年政治危机之前的几年所表达的那样。总体而言，本文展示了如何从自下而上的角度看待抗议活动可以改变我们对政治动员及其动机的理解：在布基纳法索及其他地区，公民抗议构成了其自身的政治现象，不应被纳入主要源自言论的分析中。给主要活动家。