Eventful democratization: why we need methodological pluralism

Abstract

A keynote for the SCOPE 2014: Science of Politics – International Interdisciplinary Conference of Political Research that took place at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Political Science between 27 and 29 June 2014, this article assesses at theoretical and methodological level the way in which both agency and structure are relevant in social movements, particularly in processes of eventful democratization. Eventful democratization appears as sudden and unexpected, not only to observers or dictators, but also often to the very activists who mobilize against the authoritarian regimes. This difficulty in prediction is linked to agency and contingency: intense protest events are indeed under-determined moments as structural constraints are, if not overcome, at least weakened by the very capacity of mobilization to quickly transform relations. Following the social movement literature, the article focuses particularly on causal mechanisms at collective level, identifying and discussing relational, cognitive, and emotional mechanisms.