50 I. ORTIZ ET AL. Table 8 Main groups leading protests 2006–2020 2006–2010 2011–2015 2016–2020 Total Non-governmental organizations/civil 250 457 383 1090 society organizations(NGOs/CSOs) Grassroots 132 331 497 960 Political parties/movements 159 289 388 836 Trade unions 145 259 273 677 Social movements 16 117 414 547 Students/youth 53 144 179 376 Indigenous groups 62 100 109 271 Unorganized workers 62 77 117 256 Religious groups 42 82 104 228 Ethnic/racial groups 9 43 123 175 Women/feminist groups 0 13 90 103 Hackers 11 30 23 64 Government officials 5 24 25 54 Employers organizations 4 4 26 34 Police/military/militia 1 8 23 32 Prisoners 1 3 5 9 Source Authors’ analysis of world protests in media sources 2006–2020, see: https://worldprotests. org/ organized; for example, trade unions are democratically elected, federated at national and international levels, and are still the main force behind some of the largest protests. Table 8 presents the main groups leading protests in the period 2006–2020. The increase of political parties appears to be a normal result of the growing politicization of protests. However, it must be noted that there has been a significant increase in the role of“grass­roots” and social movements in protests over the years, as well as that of students/youth, indigenous/racial groups, unorganized workers, religious groups, women, hackers, prisoners and even policemen/military. 7.2 Greater Grassroots Participation Figure 15 shows the distribution of the main groups leading protests by region. Grassroots groups(in blue) appear in large numbers in Europe and North America, even though these regions also have the best organized(and best financed) NGOs/CSOs, political parties, and trade