Regimes and Repertoires
Charles Tilly
Abstract
The means by which people protest—that is, their repertoires of contention—vary radically from one political regime to the next. Highly capable undemocratic regimes such as China's show no visible signs of popular social movements, yet produce many citizen protests against arbitrary, predatory government. Less-effective and undemocratic governments like the Sudan's, meanwhile, often experience regional insurgencies and even civil wars. This book offers a wide-ranging case-by-case study of various types of government and the equally various styles of protests they foster. Using examples drawn f ... More
The means by which people protest—that is, their repertoires of contention—vary radically from one political regime to the next. Highly capable undemocratic regimes such as China's show no visible signs of popular social movements, yet produce many citizen protests against arbitrary, predatory government. Less-effective and undemocratic governments like the Sudan's, meanwhile, often experience regional insurgencies and even civil wars. This book offers a wide-ranging case-by-case study of various types of government and the equally various styles of protests they foster. Using examples drawn from many areas—G8 summit and anti-globalization protests, Hindu activism in 1980s India, nineteenth-century English Chartists organizing on behalf of workers' rights, the revolutions of 1848, and civil wars in Angola, Chechnya, and Kosovo—the book shows that such episodes of contentious politics unfold like loosely scripted theater. Along the way, it also brings forth powerful tools to sort out the reasons why certain political regimes vary and change, how the people living under them make claims on their government, and what connections can be drawn between regime change and the character of contentious politics.
Keywords:
undemocratic regimes,
social movements,
predatory government,
undemocratic governments,
regional insurgencies,
civil wars
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2006 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780226803500 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: February 2013 |
DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226803531.001.0001 |
