Comment by skitout

A lot of interesting things in this article and the work on what it is based.

Still, I think (that is a personal theory) one key element not mentioned here is what the protesters demand (how big will be the impact), and who will be impacted.

Recently, looks like more than 3.5% of the Lebanese population protested without any impact...But they were asking BIG changes, protesting against ALL the "elites" (and a big chuck of the bourgeoisie). Army leaders, politician around the spectrum, even some cleric had a lot to lose, and quite no one in a power position had anything to win.

In Tunisia or in Egypt, they were asking more freedom and a bit less nepotism (that is relatively cheap). Armies (and army leaders) had quite nothing to lose to support such big protests, and this "regime change" was an opportunity for a big chunk of the elite and of the "bourgeoisie" to "capture" more business and power.

I guess if 2.5 millions of French people would protest to end capitalism and make a big "equalization" of capital, their chances of achieving it by just protesting are 0. The stakes are too high, and all the element of the "power structure" would be totally against and ready to do a lot of think to preserve the status quo. Same protests regularly asking a 20% pay bump and more referendums like in Swissterland, would have serious chance to get something...