<![CDATA[Student protests are a form of democratic participation through which citizens articulate aspirations, criticize public policies, and express dissatisfaction with institutional decisions. This study examines how existing literature conceptualizes student protests as democratic contestation and explores the implications of institutional responses for national resilience, using student protests in Maluku in 2024 as a contextual illustration. The study employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) guided by the PRISMA 2020 framework. Literature was retrieved from Google Scholar, Scopus, and SINTA. Of the 79 initial records identified, 20 studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in the thematic synthesis. The reviewed literature indicates that student protests can serve as channels for articulating public concerns and exercising democratic participation. Contestation may arise when institutional responses fail to address protesters’ demands or provide adequate opportunities for dialogue. Across the reviewed studies, dialogic and accommodative responses are associated with opportunities for clarification, negotiation, and problem-solving, whereas unresponsive approaches may contribute to persistent dissatisfaction and social tension. These findings represent a synthesis of existing literature rather than direct empirical findings from fieldwork in Maluku. The article’s contribution lies in connecting research on student protests and institutional responsiveness with a national resilience perspective, emphasizing that protests should not automatically be interpreted as threats to national resilience. Instead, their implications depend partly on institutional capacity to manage democratic contestation inclusively, responsively, and constructively. The Maluku context illustrates the relevance of this analytical perspective to the relationship between democratic participation and national resilience.]]>
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