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Author: Donnacha Ó Beacháin
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2010-07-12
Total Pages: 267
ISBN-13: 1136951970
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book explores the origins and effects, successes and failures of "colour revolutions" in the former Soviet Republics - the non-violent protests which succeeded in overthrowing post-communist authoritarian regimes, for example in Georgia in 2003, Ukraine in 2004 and Kyrgyzstan in 2005.
Author: Lincoln A. Mitchell
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2012-06-22
Total Pages: 252
ISBN-13: 0812207092
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFrom late 2003 through mid-2005, a series of peaceful street protests toppled corrupt and undemocratic regimes in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan and ushered in the election of new presidents in all three nations. These movements—collectively known as the Color Revolutions—were greeted in the West as democratic breakthroughs that might thoroughly reshape the political terrain of the former Soviet Union. But as Lincoln A. Mitchell explains in The Color Revolutions, it has since become clear that these protests were as much reflections of continuity as they were moments of radical change. Not only did these movements do little to spur democratic change in other post-Soviet states, but their impact on Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan themselves was quite different from what was initially expected. In fact, Mitchell suggests, the Color Revolutions are best understood as phases in each nation's long post-Communist transition: significant events, to be sure, but far short of true revolutions. The Color Revolutions explores the causes and consequences of all three Color Revolutions—the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan—identifying both common themes and national variations. Mitchell's analysis also addresses the role of American democracy promotion programs, the responses of nondemocratic regimes to the Color Revolutions, the impact of these events on U.S.-Russian relations, and the failed "revolutions" in Azerbaijan and Belarus in 2005 and 2006. At a time when the Arab Spring has raised hopes for democratic development in the Middle East, Mitchell's account of the Color Revolutions serves as a valuable reminder of the dangers of confusing dramatic moments with lasting democratic breakthroughs.
Author: Jack A. Goldstone
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2023
Total Pages: 177
ISBN-13: 0197666302
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"In the 20th and 21st century revolutions have become more urban, often less violent, but also more frequent and more transformative of the international order. Whether it is the revolutions against Communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR; the "color revolutions" across Asia, Europe and North Africa; or the religious revolutions in Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria; today's revolutions are quite different from those of the past. Modern theories of revolution have therefore replaced the older class-based theories with more varied, dynamic, and contingent models of social and political change. This new edition updates the history of revolutions, from Classical Greece and Rome to the Revolution of Dignity in the Ukraine, with attention to the changing types and outcomes of revolutionary struggles. It also presents the latest advances in the theory of revolutions, including the issues of revolutionary waves, revolutionary leadership, international influences, and the likelihood of revolutions to come. This volume provides a brief but comprehensive introduction to the nature of revolutions and their role in global history"--
Author: Evgeny Finkel
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-07-17
Total Pages: 195
ISBN-13: 1317980239
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBetween 2000 and 2005, colour revolutions swept away authoritarian and semi-authoritarian regimes in Serbia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. Yet, after these initial successes, attempts to replicate the strategies failed to produce regime change elsewhere in the region. The book argues that students of democratization and democracy promotion should study not only the successful colour revolutions, but also the colour revolution prevention strategies adopted by authoritarian elites. Based on a series of qualitative, country-focused studies the book explores the whole spectrum of anti-democratization policies, adopted by autocratic rulers and demonstrates that authoritarian regimes studied democracy promotion techniques, used in various colour revolutions, and focused their prevention strategies on combatting these techniques. The book proposes a new typology of authoritarian reactions to the challenge of democratization and argues that the specific mix of policies and rhetoric, adopted by each authoritarian regime, depended on the perceived intensity of threat to regime survival and the regime’s perceived strength vis-à-vis the democratic opposition. This book was published as a special issue of Democratization.
Author: Lincoln A. Mitchell
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2013-06-11
Total Pages: 192
ISBN-13: 0812202813
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn November of 2003, a stolen election in the former Soviet republic of Georgia led to protests and the eventual resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze. Shevardnadze was replaced by a democratically elected government led by President Mikheil Saakashvili, who pledged to rebuild Georgia, orient it toward the West, and develop a European-style democracy. Known as the Rose Revolution, this early twenty-first-century democratic movement was only one of the so-called color revolutions (Orange in Ukraine, Tulip in Kyrgyzstan, and Cedar in Lebanon). What made democratic revolution in Georgia thrive when so many similar movements in the early part of the decade dissolved? Lincoln A. Mitchell witnessed the Rose Revolution firsthand, even playing a role in its manifestation by working closely with key Georgian actors who brought about change. In Uncertain Democracy, Mitchell recounts the events that led to the overthrow of Shevardnadze and analyzes the factors that contributed to the staying power of the new regime. The book also explores the modest but indispensable role of the United States in contributing to the Rose Revolution and Georgia's failure to live up to its democratic promise. Uncertain Democracy is the first scholarly examination of Georgia's recent political past. Drawing upon primary sources, secondary documents, and his own NGO experience, Mitchell presents a compelling case study of the effect of U.S. policy of promoting democracy abroad.
Author: David Lane
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-09-13
Total Pages: 312
ISBN-13: 1317987144
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe communist world was supposed to have had its ‘revolution’ in 1989. But the demise of the Soviet Union came two years later, at the end of 1991; and then, perplexingly, a series of irregular executive changes began to take place the following decade in countries that were already postcommunist. The focus in this collection is the changes that took place in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan between 2000 and 2005 that have together been called the ‘coloured revolutions’: of no particular colour in Serbia, but Rose in Georgia, Orange in Ukraine and Tulip in Kyrgyzstan. Apart from exploring political change in the ‘coloured revolution’ countries themselves, the contributors to this collection focus on countries that did not experience this kind of irregular executive change but which might otherwise be comparable (Belarus and Kazakhstan among them), and on reactions to ‘democracy promotion’ in Russia and China. Throughout, an effort is made to avoid taking the ‘coloured revolutions’ at face value, however they may have been presented by local leaders and foreign governments with their own agendas; and to place them within the wider literature of comparative politics. This book was previously published as a special issue of Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.
Author: Adam Przeworski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2015-05-21
Total Pages: 353
ISBN-13: 1107053390
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book examines the current state and the prospects for democracy in Russia in the light of the experience of existing democracies. Posing several challenges to our understanding of democracy, thirteen contributors argue some of the central questions vital to understanding the conditions of emergence and survival of successful democracies.
Author: Anna Ohanyan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2020-09-03
Total Pages: 289
ISBN-13: 178831719X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn April 2018, Armenia experienced a remarkable popular uprising leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan and his replacement by protest leader Nikol Pashinyan. Evoking Czechoslovakia's similarly peaceful overthrow of communism 30 years previously, the uprising came to be known as Armenia's 'Velvet Revolution': a broad-based movement calling for clean government, democracy and economic reform. This volume examines how a popular protest movement, showcasing civil disobedience as a mass strategy for the first time in the post-Soviet space, overcame these unpromising circumstances. Situating the events in Armenia in their national, regional and global contexts, different contributions evaluate the causes driving Armenia's unexpected democratic turn, the reasons for regime vulnerability and the factors mediating a non-violent outcome. Drawing on comparative perspectives with democratic transitions across the world, this book will be essential reading for those interested in the regime dynamics, social movements and contested politics of contemporary Eurasia, as well as policy-makers and practitioners in the fields of democracy assistance and human rights in an increasingly multipolar world.
Author: Andrei Manoilo
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Published: 2015-02-20
Total Pages: 156
ISBN-13: 1496970195
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe monograph is devoted to the analysis of the problems associated with the dismantling of the political regimes in modern states (both authoritarian and democratic type) and with the role of technology in the process of color revolutions.
Author: Olga Baysha
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2018-10-18
Total Pages: 247
ISBN-13: 1498558941
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMiscommunicating Social Change analyzes the discourses of three social movements and the alternative media associated with them, revealing that the Enlightenment narrative, though widely critiqued in academia, remains the dominant way of conceptualizing social change in the name of democratization in the post-Soviet terrain. The main argument of this book is that the “progressive” imaginary, which envisages progress in the unidirectional terms of catching up with the “more advanced” Western condition, is inherently anti-democratic and deeply antagonistic. Instead of fostering an inclusive democratic process in which all strata of populations holding different views are involved, it draws solid dividing frontiers between “progressive” and “retrograde” forces, deepening existing antagonisms and provoking new ones; it also naturalizes the hierarchies of the global neocolonial/neoliberal power of the West. Using case studies of the “White Ribbons” social movement for fair elections in Russia (2012), the Ukrainian Euromaidan (2013–2014), and anti-corruption protests in Russia organized by Alexei Navalny (2017) and drawing on the theories of Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, and Nico Carpentier, this book shows how “progressive” articulations by the social movements under consideration ended up undermining the basis of the democratic public sphere through the closure of democratic space.
