Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The term “color revolutions” is used to describe as a single phenomenon a number of non-violent protests that succeeded in overthrowing authoritarian regimes between 1998 and 2005. In each of these protest movements, leaders adopted colored flags to rally under. Geographically, the term has tended to encompass only post-communist countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, though there is evidence that similar movements for change have been initiated in the Middle East ( Lebanon, 2004 ) and Asia (Burma, 2007). Historically, there are many precedents for the color revolution phenomenon in Europe. Protests aimed at advancing peaceful democratic change were regularly registered in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe. These took the form of anti-state worker revolts (East Germany, 1953; Poland, 1956 , 1970) or movements that included national communist leaders who favored weakening domestic authoritarianism and foreign, usually Moscow, domination ( Hungary, 1956 ; Czechoslovakia, 1968 ). The Polish Solidarność (Solidarity) movement, which grew out of the Gdańsk shipyards, broke new ground in the early 1980s, amassing 10 million members in a show of unity that forced the communist leadership to negotiate and offer reforms. General Jaruzelski's usurpation of the communist leadership in Poland, his introduction of martial law, and suppression of Solidarność highlighted the ... log in or subscribe to read full text