Conclusions: Understanding Revolutionary Moments and Movements

Abstract

As we now see, crisis-related mass mobilization is a multi-actor, multi-step phenomenon. It does not come out of nowhere but rather is built upon a long-term process of mobilization. Different actors enter into the mobilization equation at different stages, their motivations and access to information are also different and they are affected by their interaction with other actors as well as by past precedents. In this concluding chapter we can pull together the key findings and identify the main empirical, theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of mass mobilization, and more broadly the field of comparative politics. I will also briefly discuss the two theoretical frameworks (‘Actor Interaction and Information Exchange Game’ and ‘The Protest Patience Threshold Calculus’) constructed throughout the book. As this book was being completed we witnessed a wave of mass protests in Southern Europe, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Eastern Europe. I will thus draw on the findings and conclusions of this study and make comparative references to recent cases of mass mobilization, such as the austerity-related protests in Greece in 2010–2012 and the Arab Spring protests in Egypt in 2011–2012, thereby highlighting the findings’ explanatory power to a wider set of cases. In a separate epilogue, I will address the EuroMaidan mass mobilization that erupted as this book was going to press. I will connect the past history of mobilization, outline the actors involved and draw some brief comparisons between the motivations and participation of ‘ordinary’ Ukrainians in 2004 and 2013/2014.