Gilets Jaunes refused procedural deliberation as a form of political resistance

Evidence

Crucially, its claims did not center on demands for a dialogue in tune with a procedural Habermassian democracy. Protesters repeatedly declined invitations to speak to television news through representatives and made few attempts to dispel negative rumors about the movement. Dialogue was President Macron’s way of appeasing the public opinion: the government staged a series of grand débats (grand debates) in early 2019 as part of a “nationwide public consultation” in response to the Gilets Jaunes protests. Both the content and the style (hierarchical, formulaic) of the debates were ostentatiously out of tune with the movement and its demands. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 337

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Habermasian deliberative democracy critiques — the movement’s rejection of the grand débats mirrors the soundscape literature’s point that procedural channels can themselves be a way to absorb dissent. — connects to: Marcuse coined the Great Refusal as protest against unnecessary repression — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 541