It is an oft-repeated cliché in political economy and sociology that economic crises tend to lead to social unrest. As Jürgen Habermas wrote in his landmark text, Legitimation Crisis, crises of capitalism quickly tend to morph into crises of representative democracy. We have recently seen this in Spain and Greece, where millions of people have taken to the streets against their political representatives, demanding direct democracy instead.

But the recent outburst of mass demonstrations in Chile and Israel tells a different story altogether. Unlike Spain and Greece, where the economy has been stagnating or contracting for the past three years, and where unemployment is skyrocketing to obscene levels, Chile and Israel have been enjoying steady growth and low unemployment. Still, life in these countries is becoming increasingly unbearable for most of the lower and middle class.