Theories of Collective Action and Revolution: Evidence from the Romanian Transition of December 1989

Abstract

SEVERAL OF THE EAST EUROPEAN COMMUNIST REGIMES which collapsed in the autumn of 1989 were toppled by street protests.' The role played by sudden mass mobilisation in the collapse of these regimes has quite naturally attracted the attention of those who study collective action.2 As 'revolutions', the East European events were uncharacteristic in their lack of violence-both on the part of regime opponents and on the part of regime forces.3 As has frequently been remarked, among the Soviet bloc countries, only in Romania was the collapse of the communist regime violent, and that violence was on the part of the regime, not the demonstrators. The Romanian case is interesting and significant because it presents the single case among Soviet bloc countries where street protest played a major role in precipitating the collapse of the communist regime and where the regime used substantial violence to prevent its downfall. It thus stands at the crossroads of both theories of collective action and theories of revolution.