Brazil's Protests From A Global Perspective

Protesters in Bulgaria

An article in the Washington Post focuses on the similarities and connections among recent protests in Turkey, Bulgaria, Brazil, and Spain. In all four cases, the protests have been driven by middle-class citizens who are fed up with ineffective, unresponsive governments. Economic concerns are high on the list of the protesters' complaints. 

Not only do the protesters have similar concerns and grievances, they are also using social media to communicate with each other in English. One observer quoted in the article describes the protesters as "a group of people who are better educated and more connected through technology."

While social networking was a key part of the Arab Spring protests, those protests were more about gaining freedom from repressive regimes than they were about economic issues. The current round of protests have been marked by less violence, though police have used rubber bullets and there have been deaths.