Protest and Mass Mobilization

Authoritarian Collapse and Political Change in North Africa
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4724-5930-5
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 180 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 443 g

Why and how do some acts of protest trigger mass mobilization while others do not? Using the cases of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, Mekouar argues that successful mass mobilization is the result of a surprise factor, whose impact and exceptionality is amplified by the presence of influential political agents during the early phase of protest, as well as by regime violence and unusual media coverage. Together this study argues that these factors create a perception of exceptionality, which breaks the locally available cognitive heuristic originally in favor of the regime, and thus creates the necessary conditions for mobilization to occur. This book provides a unique dialectical picture of mobilization in North Africa by focusing both on the perspective of those who mobilized against their local regimes and members of the security forces who were responsible for stopping them. Moreover, it offers a first-hand account of the tumultuous days preceding authoritarian collapse and explains the mechanisms through which political change occurs.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mekouar, Merouan

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Innen-, Bildungs- und Bevölkerungspolitik
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Regional- & Raumplanung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Introduction 2 Tunsia’s Intermediate Actors: Bridging the Popular Divide and Making the Revolution 3 Libya’s Revolution: How Qaddafi’s Friends Made the Revolution.4 Algeria: Social Mobilization Routinized 5 Morocco’s Aborted Social Mobilization: All Behind the King 6 The Media in the Arab Spring 7 Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Merouan Mekouar is a political scientist and professor of International Development Studies at York University and a senior fellow at the inter-university consortium of Arab and Middle Eastern Studies at McGill University. He works on social movements and authoritarian collapse in North Africa and the Middle East.