This panel explores forms and adaptations of participation, mobilisation, and civil society engagements in autocracies. In recent years, scholarly inquiry has problematised conceptualisations of civil society in autocracies as “failed” or “weak”, disjointing the theorisation of civil society trajectories from democratisation processes, and exploring the forms and structures of mobilisation and participation specific to autocracies outside linear-positivistic paradigms subordinating them to the “ideal” or “mature” forms of activism and civil society in consolidated democracies.
Empirical evidence suggests that participation and mobilisation adapt to the constraints of authoritarianism by developing resilient activist networks and infrastructures, as well as creative repertoires of contention and direct social action. Some of the most documented practices include the strategic use of information technology and social media, the deployment of invisibility politics, and covert engagement practices that exploit regime-tolerated structures of associational life.
Research also found that, within a neoliberal world order, civic sphere repression in autocracies might be ruthless but cannot suppress civil society’s function as a residual welfare provider, if not at the cost of fueling mass discontent. This paradox generates politics of selective tolerance towards associational life, turning social engagement into an ambiguous site of authoritarian consolidation and covert contestation.
This panel welcomes contributions exploring, but not limited to, the following aspects of participation and mobilisation in autocracies:
1. The specific strategic dilemmas faced by activists and movements in autocracies, their engagement strategies and their choice of arenas for interacting with domestic and international political actors.
2. The repertoires deployed by activists and movements in autocracies to contest and resist authoritarianism, including shifts and adaptations in response to changing policy and socio-economic landscapes.
3. The external legibility of mobilisation in autocracies: dilemmas of visibility and framing in mobilising international solidarity.
4. Movement trajectories, diffusion, and remembrance in autocracies or countries in transition, and how past protests or movements influence contemporary mobilisation.
5. NGOs, charities, and the ambiguity of selective tolerance in authoritarian regimes: complicity, contestation, and transformations.
Papers exploring these themes beyond traditional research directions, including the civil society-democracy nexus, are particularly welcome.
