Social Movements and Revolutions

This course investigates the politics of protest and revolution, examining the conditions under which protest movements emerge, their choice of tactics, the effects of repression and concessions, and the determinants of movement success. The second part of the course focuses on revolutions, examining the forms they assume and the conditions under which they develop and prove successful. Examples discussed include the civil rights, women's and environmental movements; the French, Russian, and Iranian revolutions; the collapse of communism; and the "color revolutions," the Arab Spring, and other waves of revolution in the contemporary world.