Social Movements and the New State

This book analyzes the long-term development of pro-democracy social movement organizations after democratic breakthrough. Typically, many leaders of successful movement organizations enter the state upon democratic breakthrough--but does this empower or weaken the mission of the organizations left behind? Despite the fact that the United States annually spends hundreds of millions of dollars supporting pro-democracy civil society organizations around the world, very little is known about the efficacy of these powerful organizations after regime change. This book argues that identities and personal networks developed during the struggle provide movement activists with opportunities to influence minor issues, but that new and differing institutional pressures create schisms on broader policy that can turn prior bonds into a liability rather than an asset. The author evaluates these arguments using evidence from media analyses and approximately 150 in-depth elite interviews in Poland, South Africa and Georgia.

Brian K. Grodsky is Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is the author of The Costs of Justice: How New Leaders Respond to Previous-Rights Abuses (2010).