CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Jison, John Raymond Belnas |
|---|---|
| Title | Analyzing Mobilization and Outcomes of People Power Movements in Non-Democratic Regimes. The Interplay of Political and Discursive Opportunity Structures in Asian People Power Movements (1970s-1990s). |
| Summary | People power movements are protest movements that seek to challenge authoritarian regimes through methods of nonviolent action such as protest demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience. The inordinate risks associated with mobilizing in non-democratic regimes such as the regime’s propensity to use force to repress dissent should decrease the likelihood of collective action, but people power movements have emerged and even been regarded as crucial to the democratization of some autocracies. Analyzing opportunity structures accessible to the movement provides a compelling framework in explaining how people power movements in non-democratic regimes mobilize and achieve successful outcomes. This thesis focuses on the interplay of two types of opportunity structures, namely the political opportunity structures (POS) and the discursive opportunity structures (DOS), to account for movement mobilization and achievement of outcomes. Through a comparative study of Myanmar’s People's Democracy Movement (1988) and China’s Tiananmen Democracy Movement (1989), this thesis explores how the variation in the degree of strength of POS and DOS of these movements contributes to mobilization and attainment of successful outcomes. In the case of Myanmar, it is shown that the strong presence of POS has not been fully maximized due to the movement’s failure to deeply engage the citizens in sustained collective action through the effective use of discursive opportunities. In the case of China, the strong presence of DOS has not been completely maximized due to its failure to recast the overall political context, undermine state legitimacy, and create possible opening of political opportunities. Both cases demonstrate that there may be a mismatch between existing and perceived opportunities, that the state can supplement its repressive apparatuses with persuasive repertoires to impede mobilization, and that failure to maximize both POS and DOS is a constraint in achieving movement resilience and undermining regime power and legitimacy. |
| Supervisor | Lup, Oana |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/jison_john-raymond.pdf |
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