PXfuel CC0
PXfuel CC0

Why do some pro-democracy movements succeed while others fail?

Congratulations to project leader Hanne Fjelde on securing 3-year funding from the FRIPRO programme of the Research Council of Norway for the project Mobilizing for and against Democracy (MoDe). Other project members are Sirianne Dahlum, Tore Wig (UiO and PRIO), Carl-Henrik Knutsen (UiO and PRIO), Marianne Dahl (PRIO), Espen Geelmuyden Rød (Uppsala University and Nils W. Metternich (UCL).

From the French Revolution to the present, social movements have been central forces behind efforts to bring down dictatorships and promote democratic transition. Some of these movements have been successful in forging peaceful democratic transitions, others have been violently shut down as dictators successfully clung to power.

Why do some pro-democracy movements succeed while others fail? The project, Mobilizing for and against Democracy (MoDe), seeks to answer this question by focusing on the different social groups that mobilize for and against democratization.