After Tahrir: Processes of Demobilization in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution

• In Event: 1254 - The Evolution of Social Movements

Abstract

Demobilization is a chronically understudied aspect of social conflict and contentious politics. This paper examines how revolutionary movements engage in processes of demobilization, with the intention of developing new theoretical tools for the analysis of these processes from a movement-led perspective. The paper traces the demobilization of formal organizations, activists, and casual participants in the years following Egypt’s 2011 revolution, drawing on a diverse array of historical sources, as well as first-hand in-depth interviews with 26 participants in Egypt’s revolutionary and post-revolutionary struggles. The paper identifies three distinct dynamics of demobilization: Distraction, Division and Disillusion. These three dynamics were most prominent among organizations, activists and casual participants respectively, indicating that different elements within movements also follow distinctive pathways of demobilization. By contrast, state repression played only a relatively small role during the demobilization process, but substantially developed after an initial phase of movement-led demobilization had occurred.

Author

• Benjamin Abrams, Cambridge University & University College London