How Gen Z-Led Protests Shaped the World in 2025

This year brought hope to skeptics who doubted the ability of young people to catalyze political change.

We often hear that Generation Z is disillusioned with democracy and excluded from politics, especially in the West. But in the wake of the Bangladesh Movement of 2024 – widely considered the first successful “Generation Z revolution” – powerful youth-led movements have swept the world, from Africa to Latin America to South Asia. Although each movement had its own internal causes, all were caused by deep popular anger at a combination of corruption, cost-of-living crises, and widespread economic discontent.

This year brought hope to skeptics who doubted the ability of young people to catalyze political change.

We often hear that Generation Z is disillusioned with democracy and excluded from politics, especially in the West. But in the wake of the Bangladesh Movement of 2024 – widely considered the first successful “Generation Z revolution” – powerful youth-led movements have swept the world, from Africa to Latin America to South Asia. Although each movement had its own internal causes, all were caused by deep popular anger at a combination of corruption, cost-of-living crises, and widespread economic discontent.

In September, what began as demonstrations against a social media ban in Nepal quickly turned into a mass mobilization that ousted Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. In October, civil unrest in Peru contributed to the impeachment of President Dina Boluarte. That same month, military officials in Madagascar joined the country’s youth protesters in a “coup” that ousted the government of President Andry Rajoelina.

These revolutions were amazing in their strength and speed. For example, Nepalese protesters took to the streets for only five days. Other mass protest movements have proven to be durable and powerful in their own right, even without overthrowing governments, including in Ecuador, Indonesia, Kenya, the Maldives, Morocco, the Philippines, and East Timor.

The question many observers are now asking is how these movements will – or will not – affect young people in the rest of the world. This requires analyzing what led to the successes of Generation Z protesters and the barriers they may face on the other side of the revolution.

In 2025, Foreign policy I examined these movements from a variety of perspectives—academic, journalistic, and theoretical—to understand what happened and what might come next.

1. Is protest dead?

By Jan-Werner Müller, February 21

It may seem strange to begin a collection of articles about successful protest movements by asking whether resistance is dead. But an article by political scientist Jan-Werner Müller on failed movements provides important context for understanding not only what happened this year, but also the obstacles revolutions may face after their initial success.

Muller reviews two recent books—by Vincent Bivins If We Burn: The Decade of Mass Protest and the Lost Revolution and Joachim C. Haberlein Beauty in the Street: Protest and Counterculture in Postwar Europe– To study the conditions for meaningful political change and why previous movements, such as the Arab Spring, failed.

“[T]“Time in politics is always short,” Mueller writes. “Anyone reading these books might want to draw on both lessons: cohesive organizing—as opposed to performative resistance—is important, but so is the patient, sometimes subversive, work of long-term transformation.”

2. Generation Z is heading to the barricades

By Christian Carrel, October 17

Generation Z-led movements have toppled one government after another across the Global South in recent years. Journalist Christian Carrel examines what unites these disparate revolutions beyond generational commonalities—and how they could impact other Generation Z, including in the United States and Europe.

“Some observers may dismiss this new wave of activism as irrelevant to the future of established democracies,” Carrel writes. “But such complacency may be unwise.” “If this new revolutionary movement has proven anything, it is that no one should underestimate how contagious it is.”

3. Disagreement vote in Nepal may be the future of protest

By Aja Romano, September 22

“It’s a safe bet that no one has ever had ‘Nepalese citizens hold meaningful state elections on online game server’ on their 2025 bingo card,” wrote Aja Romano, a veteran internet culture journalist. But Nepal’s new interim prime minister was elected on the messaging platform Discord, shortly after the youth-led protests that ousted her predecessor in early September.

Romano examines how dissension—“an unlikely candidate for this kind of mass mobilization”—became a space for an experimental and ultimately successful political convention. By examining what happened in Nepal, he draws conclusions about how social media can once again become a powerful tool for democracy elsewhere in the world.

4. The biggest problem India faces is its own backyard

By Safina Nabi, September 26

As the Generation Z uprisings turn politics in South Asia upside down, analysts are starting to wonder what all this might mean for India, the world’s largest democracy. “India now finds itself grappling with an unexpected question: What does its rise as a global power mean when its immediate neighborhood is in political freefall?” Savin Nabi writes.

These movements have called into question political stability in South Asia, as well as New Delhi’s traditional role in ensuring this stability. “Ultimately, India’s ability to project power globally depends on maintaining a significant degree of calm in the region,” Nappi wrote.

5. The “coup” in Madagascar follows a familiar pattern

By Salah Ben Hammou and Jonathan Powell, November 6

While many cheer the fall of entrenched governments, the Madagascar movement illustrates the challenges of ensuring protesters’ priorities win out after a revolution – especially when the military joins the cause in what analysts call a “coup.”

Political scientists Salah Ben Hammou and Jonathan Powell view Egypt’s 2013 rebellion, among other recent examples, as a cautionary tale. But that doesn’t mean Malagasy protesters should raise their hands: “For citizens who rallied against an unpopular leader and cheered his downfall at the hands of the military, the real test begins after victory: maintaining influence over the post-coup regime without being marginalized by military officers who are consolidating their power,” Hamo and Powell write.