Where Did the Revolution go? Social Movements in Democratic Consolidation

Another aim of Mobilizing for Democracy is to understand the consequences of previous participation of civil society organizations in transition on the successive stages of consolidation. Paired comparisons of cases of ‘democratization from above’ and ‘democratization from below’ are developed, addressing the time evolution as well as the causal mechanisms of civil society participation in democratization processes. Empirical evidences come from quantitative analyses of protest events, collected from the press and other sources, as well as oral history and archival research. Comparison addresses Poland, Hungary and Spain as cases of participated pacts with Czechoslovakia, GDR and Portugal as cases of eventful democratization, Portugal a. In a longer term perspective, the research address processes of democratization in Italy and Germany. Comparison on effects is also addressed in the MENA regions (in particular, Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey).

Researchers working on this part include:

• Kivanc Atak, on effects of democratic transition on consolidation in Turkey
• Tiago Fernandes,on the effects of democratic transition on consolidation in Portugal
• Herbert Reiter, comparing the development of conception of democracy in the labour movement in Italy and Germany
• Eduardo Romanos, on the effects of democratic transition on consolidation in Spain

Interviews with former activists were conducted by:

• Teije Donker in Tunisia
• Milan Hrubes in the Czech Republic
• Jochen Kleres in the GDR
• Grzegorz Piotrowski in Poland
• Lili Torek in Hungary
• Jana Warkotsch in Egypt

Protest event analysis was conducted by:

• Kivanc Atak on Turkey and Tunisia
• Matteo Cernison on Central Eastern Europe
• Hugo Leal on Egypt