AbstractCross‐section econometrics is used to investigate the effect of demobilization on crime in Uganda. The results show that in the short term demobilization significantly increased crime if soldiers lacked access to land, but significantly reduced it if they had access. Neither of these effects persisted. The paper also discusses the effect of demobilization on the security of the state.
Scholarship on social movement lifecycles has focused on mobilization processes, with relatively less attention on the ends, demobilization. The intuitive connection between origins and ends has sometimes led to a conceptualization of demobilization as simply the failure to continue mobilizing, obscuring the distinct causal processes underlying demobilization. This article adds to recent studies foregrounding demobilization by studying the negative demobilization of large, far-right, demonstration campaigns. Using a subset from this population of cases—campaigns in Germany, England, and Austria between 1990 and 2015—the article applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to this causally complex phenomenon. I find that demobilizing is conjunctural, with evidence of four patterns: closing opportunity, coercive state repression, civil countermobilization, and militant anti-far-right action. This article addresses an important—and conspicuously ubiquitous—population of cases, far-right demonstration campaigns and presents findings that reflect on critical issues in the study of far-right sociopolitics.
This article reassesses the myth of the heroic homecoming and successful reintegration of Red Army veterans returning to Leningrad after 1945. Soviet propaganda created an official version of demobilization, which presented veterans as exemplary citizens who returned to civilian life with relative ease. This myth created the impression that ordinary Leningraders welcomed home returning veterans as heroes. Throughout the twentieth century the demobilization of mass conscript armies generated tensions and difficulties. Across Europe the experience of demobilization in the wake of industrialized warfare created resentment, disaffection and anger. In contrast to official myths, Leningrad's veterans were little different from their counterparts elsewhere. Reports based on veterans' letters intercepted by the military censor reveal that many ex-servicemen were deeply resentful of the reception they received in postwar Leningrad. The frustrations of demobilization were blamed on 'rear-line rats', a term of derision for officials believed to have shirked front-line service in favour of safer administrative jobs. These problems were not imagined by disaffected veterans. Other documents confirm that corruption and bureaucracy were widespread problems. Despite these simmering resentments, the myth of a successful demobilization has remained remarkably durable and continues to be accepted by historians and the general population.
Why are some dictators more successful at demobilizing protest movements than others? Repression sometimes stamps out protest movements (Bahrain in 2011) but can also cause a backlash (Egypt and Tunisia in 2011), leading to regime change. This article argues that the effectiveness of repression in quelling protests varies depending upon the income sources of authoritarian regimes. Oil-rich autocracies are well equipped to contend with domestic and international criticism, and this gives them a greater capacity to quell protests through force. Because oil-poor dictators lack such ability to deal with criticism, repression is more likely to trigger a backlash of increased protests. The argument is supported by analysis of newly available data on mass protests from the Nonviolent and Violent Campaigns and Outcomes (NAVCO 2.0) dataset, which covers all countries (1945–2006). This article implies that publics respond strategically to repression, and tend to demobilize when the government is capable of continually employing repression with impunity.
This article investigates why people who take a stand against mining-related pollution sometimes abandon activism before resolving their grievances. Previous studies of this process have attributed demobilization to co-optation, violent repression, legitimation tactics, and lack of identity correspondence between movement participants and environmental justice organizations. To sharpen our understanding of why movement dissolution occurs, I investigate a case of demobilization that was not caused by these factors. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and document analysis conducted in "Shale County," a coal-producing community in Central Appalachia, I show how coal companies' subtle, yet continuous, acts of obstruction, non-cooperation, and dissimulation prompted activists to withdraw from protest. My analysis contributes to the environmental sociology and social movements literatures by (1) expanding existing theory to account for an empirical anomaly; (2) explaining the role that subtle, under-the-radar social control tactics play in suppressing environmental movements; and (3) highlighting the social conditions that render these "clandestine kicks" and "invisible elbows" effective. The model of demobilization I develop underscores the way contextual factors moderate the effectivity of industrial counter-protest tactics and foreground the active, conjuncturally specific processes through which demobilization occurs.
Given the start of new peace talks between the FARC guerrillas and the Colombian government, it is crucial to understand the role of Colombian journalists in reporting peace and war.This article presents an analysis on the National Press coverage of the demobilizations of a paramilitary group (Bloque Cacique Nutibara) and a section of the FARC guerrillas (BloqueCacicaGaitana) within a frame that reflects over the ethical practice of journalism in the context of war. The results are consistent with literature arguing that ethical codes are not documents dictating how journalists should do their job, but rather they represent political acts of communication which allow journalists to reclaim their proffessional independence from sources and defend themselves from threats. The paper also discusses the apparent tension between journalism ethics, and the barriers imposed by the media´s informational needs and the strategic military aims of armed groups.
Middle-class resistance to proletarianization and neoliberal crisis from Buenos Aires to Wall Street -- That sinking feeling : the experience of Mass Pauperization in Argentina, Hegemony, control and contentious politics -- Crying for Argentina (or for themselves)? : mobilization and the 2001-02 saucepan revolt -- Banging on the other side of the saucepan : the struggling middle-class under Kirchnerismo and Macrismo (2003-18).
"Met any American communists lately? Between 1919 and the late 1950s, the Communist Party of the United States of America (CP-USA) engaged in a wide variety of challenges directed against the U.S. government and its economic system. Because of this, many aspects of the organization became well known to the American public. Indeed, in their day, the names of the organizational leadership (i.e., William Foster, Earl Browder and Eugene Dennis) were as popular as any at the time. Bent on dramatically transforming US political-economic relations, the Party attempted to raise awareness regarding the evils of the American political-economic system and engage in numerous struggles against it. The activities put forth toward these ends were as numerous as they were varied, from editorials to unionization to political campaigns to mass protests"--
