Social Movements and Civil War: When Protests for Democratization Fail

Co-authored scholarly book · Published (2017)

Complete citation

Donatella della Porta, Teije Hidde Donker, Bogumila Hall, Emin Poljarević, and Daniel P. Ritter. Social Movements and Civil War: When Protests for Democratization Fail. London: Routledge, 2017.

Publication status and type

Published (2017); co-authored scholarly book.

Overview

This co-authored book investigates why movements demanding democratisation sometimes culminate in armed conflict rather than political opening. Bringing social-movement research into conversation with scholarship on civil war, it examines how protest campaigns develop under conditions of repression, institutional breakdown, and escalating confrontation. The analysis follows the shifting relationships among activists, state authorities, opposition networks, and armed actors as opportunities for peaceful mobilisation narrow. Particular attention is given to the mechanisms through which contentious politics becomes militarised and to the consequences of failed transitions. The book contributes a process-oriented account that treats civil war not as an isolated outcome but as a transformation within struggles over political authority and participation. It therefore connects mobilisation, repression, and conflict escalation within a shared comparative framework.

Research question or central concern

Why do some movements for democratisation escalate into civil war, and how do repression, political interaction, and failed transitions shape that process?

Main argument, approach, and contribution

The book combines social-movement theory with research on civil war to examine how protest, repression, and political escalation become connected. Its contribution is a comparative, process-oriented account of transitions from contentious mobilisation to armed conflict.

Keywords

social movements; democratisation; civil war; political mobilisation; repression; contentious politics.