Chaos on Campus: Universities and Mass Political Protest

Numerous historical examples suggest that universities are hotbeds of political protest. However, the generality and causal nature of this relationship has never been properly quanti fied. This paper investigates whether universities give rise to political protest, drawing on global geocoded information on the location and characteristics of universities, matched with geocoded data on political protest events in the 1991-2016 period, at the sub-national level in 62 countries in Africa and Central America. Our analysis indicates that local communities with more universities are more likely to experience mass protest. Drawing on different tests, such as quasi-random variation in the timing of academic semesters, and IV models utilizing historical patterns in colonial-era university placement, we propose that this relationship is due to the presence of universities, rather than other characteristics of these locations. We also explore the nature of university-protests, showing that the impact of universities on protest is stronger in dictatorships, and that university-related protests are more likely to be related to democracy and human rights. These findings suggest that universities cause protest partly by shaping political preferences and ideology.