As part of the NORHED II project Partnership for Peace: Better Higher Education for Resilient Societies, PRIO hosted a PhD-level course on Mass Mobilization and Democratization, from October 29 to 31. Ida Rudolfsen and Marianne Dahl led the course.
Mass mobilization remains a potent force in contemporary politics, yet its effectiveness for driving democratic change appears increasingly uncertain. The course examined the conditions under which mass mobilization emerges, succeeds, and sometimes falters, with a special emphasis on nonviolent movements. Drawing on influential theories of strategic nonviolence, the course assessed why nonviolent resistance has often outperformed violent rebellion in producing political change. To explain divergent outcomes, the course analyzed participant composition and organizational strategy. Particular attention was paid to the social composition of movements and to organizational infrastructures, ranging from decentralized networks to formal leadership hierarchies, and how these internal and external linkages shape effectiveness and resilience. The final part of the course turned to contemporary challenges: the apparent decline in the effectiveness of mass mobilization for democratic transitions, and the rise of anti-liberal and pro-authoritarian mobilization. The students considered whether mass mobilization remains a viable pathway to democratization and which recent shifts may have weakened its impact. Through close analysis of recent cases, they explored strategies for revitalizing civil resistance in increasingly polarized and digitally controlled environments.
The NORHED II project allowed PRIO to host students from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), Makerere University (Uganda), Mekelle University (Ethiopia), and African School of Economics (Benin), alongside students from other international universities.
