Armenia’s Velvet Revolution: Authoritarian Decline and Civil Resistance in a Multipolar World

Title Page\nCopyright Page\nContents\nIllustrations\n	Figure\n	Tables\nContributors\nForeword\nAcknowledgements\nIntroduction: An unlikely transition?\n	The events of April–May 2018\n	Domestic constraints on a democratic breakthrough\n	International constraints on democratic transition\n	Chapter guide\n	References\nChapter 1: Velvet is not a colour: Armenia’s democratic transition in a global context\n	Introduction\n	From people to parliament: The dual transition of Armenia’s Velvet\n	The patterns of mass mobilization: From Bahrain to Brazil\n	Stateness for and against democracy\n	Conclusion: Theoretical and policy implications from Armenia’s Velvet\n	Notes\n	References\nChapter 2: Thirty years of protest: How Armenia’s legacy of political and civic protests prepared the Velvet Revolution\n	Peaceful protest under the Soviet system: Protest mobilization in Armenia before 1991\n	Before protest became ‘mainstream’: Mobilizations after disputed elections in post-Soviet Armenia\n	Small but efficient: Civic activism and protest in pre-revolutionary Armenia\n	Writing on the wall: ‘Electric Yerevan’ and Sasna Tsrer\n	Epilogue: From Freedom Square to Republic Square\n	Note\n	References\nChapter 3: How Serzh Sargsyan and the Republican Party of Armenia lost control of a competitive authoritarian system\n	Introduction\n	The sources of competitive politics in Armenia\n	Authoritarian endurance in Armenia: legitimation, repression and co-optation\n	The Velvet Revolution as legitimation failure, coercive decline and co-optation success\n	Conclusion\n	Acknowledgements\n	Notes\n	References\nChapter 4: Armenian civil society: Growing pains, honing skills and possible pitfalls\n	Introduction\n	Armenian civil society: Three decades of development\n	Stage I: The Karabakh movement and humanitarian aid (1988–91)\n	Stage II: NGO-ization of Armenian civil society (1992–2006)\n	Stage III: Re-emergence of civic activism (2007–18)\n	Stage IV: A new ‘post-revolutionary’ stage?\n	The role of civil society in the Velvet Revolution\n	Civil society after 2018: Potential pitfalls\n	Conclusion\n	Notes\n	References\nChapter 5: Donning the Velvet: Non-violent resistance in the\n	Introduction\n	Non-violent resistance\n	Non-violent resistance in the Velvet Revolution\n	Activating unity, strategy and non-violent discipline\n	Democratization after non-violent resistance\n	Remaining challenges\n	Conclusion\n	Notes\n	References\nChapter 6: Armenia’s transition: The challenges of geography, geopolitics and multipolarity\n	Introduction\n	Revisiting the ABCs of Armenian strategy: Adaptation, balancing and ‘complementarity’ – and velvet\n	Multipolarity and a new crisis of confidence\n	The imperative of a ‘small state strategy’\n	Conclusion: Promise and peril\n	References\nChapter 7: Preserving the alliance against tall odds: Armenia’s Velvet Revolution as a challenge to Russia\n	Introduction\n	An asymmetric partnership shaped by security dependency\n	Eroding Russian dominance over Caucasian geopolitics\n	Russia’s unwavering stance against revolutions\n	Extensive Russian use of political corruption\n	Russian responses to the Velvet surprise: Shock and ambivalence\n	Possible Russian manipulations of post-revolutionary Armenia\n	Conclusion\n	References\nChapter 8: Political patriarchy: Gendered hierarchies, paternalism, and public space in Armenia’s ‘Velvet Revolution’\n	Decentralized protest and gendered hierarchies\n	The problem of propriety\n	Political/public space and paternalism\n	Conclusion\n	References\nChapter 9: Democratization and diaspora: The Velvet Revolution and the Armenian nation abroad\n	Diasporas and pro-democracy revolutions?\n	Identity gerrymandering: The Armenian state’s approach to diaspora relations\n	A tale of two diasporas: Western and post-Soviet\n	The diaspora as a force for continuity\n	The Velvet Revolution: Limited diaspora involvement\n	Organizational inaction\n	Diaspora celebrities play a supporting role\n	From Russia, with cautious neutrality\n	Post-Revolution: Continuity or change in state-diaspora relations?\n	A ‘Velvet Revolution’ in the diaspora?\n	A Velvet Revolution in state-diaspora relations?\n	Notes\n	References\nConclusion: What’s next for Armenia? Authoritarian reserves and risks in a democratic state\n	Authoritarian decline, persistence and reserves\n	Sustained civic activism, institutional erosion and the rebirth of political parties\n	Multipolarity, neo-imperialism and regional fracture\n	Overcoming the false choice between security and democracy\n	A democratic dyad in the South Caucasus\n	From crude to calibrated: the three ‘Cs’ in saving the liberal order\n	References\nIndex