Sanctions and Nonviolent Protest Mobilization

Abstract

This paper addresses the puzzle of why people join nonviolent anti-regime protests despite facing severe repressions from their governments. It inspects the role of international sanctions in the mobilization of nonviolent protests. Following previous research on sanctions, it theorizes that the imposition of sanctions can have an important signalling function and lend psychological support to protestors thereby positively impacting protest mobilization. The hypothesis that protest mobilization increases after the imposition of sanctions and the expectation that local media can help transmit this international moral boost by reporting about sanctions will be tested in a single case study format investigating one of the most prominent sanctioning regimes in UN history - South Africa.