Research On The French Yellow Vest Movement From The Perspective Of Populism

Since the 21st century,the world’s political and economic structure has been constantly changing and turbulent,and the international situation is unpredictable.Along with the further development of globalization and the rise of a new wave of populism,domestic and international conflicts and contradictions have been intensifying.In both developed and developing countries,various social movements have emerged frequently,affecting political stability and causing social unrest.Under this new wave of populism,the social movements have take on the characteristics of the times that were not present in the past.Whether it is the American Tea Party movement in 2009,the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011,or the French "Yellow Vests" Movement that occurred in late 2018,the types of participants in these social movements tend to be diversified and complicated.The trigger for the movement is usually the government’s preferential policy towards the rich class.Participants in these social movements usually do not usually form unified political demands and show a distrust of the parties,thus leaving very little political achievement.These movements shows leaderless,highly spontaneity,and decentralized expression.At the same time,because the movement is influenced by the populist value connotation,they exhibit anti-elite,anti-establishment,exclusivity,civilian and other characteristics.At the end of 2018,the "Yellow Vests" Movement in France brought about the largest and most influential social unrest in France in nearly 50 years,shaking the foundations of President Emmanuel Macron’s administration.The trigger for the movement was the government’s fuel tax reform,which has been a strong protest against the Macron government in weekly Saturday demonstrations for nearly a year.But the underlying reasons are more complex.The most important factors were the mobilization of widespread resentment against class divisions and inequality,the criticism of meritocracy,and the dissatisfaction with representative democracy in France under the influence of a new wave of populism.After systematically combing the studies of social movement theories in the United States and western Europe,this paper finds that the traditional social movement theory cannot fully explain the generative logic and external expression of the "Yellow Vests"movement,mainly because they ignore the role of populist ideology.The value connotation of populism has played a particularly important mobilization role in the movement.By organizing the development patterns of the French "Yellow Vests"movement between November 2018 and November 2019,the paper examines the progress of the dynamic movement in stages.In order to understand the mobilization effect of populism in the "Yellow Vests" movement,this article has identified three elements from the evolution of social movements:resources,opportunities and demands,and constructed a three-dimensional analysis framework for the "Yellow Vests"movement.In chapters three,four and five,the paper analyzes the role of populism as a social movement’s driving force in the outbreak,intensification and weakening of the"Yellow Vests" movement,so as to fully deeply explore the formation and logic of the"Yellow Vests" movement in France in the context of populism.