Theorizing revolution in democracies: Evidence from the 2019 uprisings in Lebanon and Iraq

Scholarly logic holds that revolutionary movements are unlikely to break out in democracies, where citizens may simply remove unpopular leaders through elections. And yet the twenty-first century has witnessed a global series of uprisings against regimes nominally democratic—in they regularly hold competitive elections—but otherwise deeply broken, run by kleptocratic networks elites who often fail deliver vital services. This paper therefore takes on task theorizing revolution democracy, pointing some ways which these differ from well-studied consolidated autocracies. We analyse two recent cases—the Tishreen uprising Iraq (2019–20) and Lebanese Thawra (2019–20)—and draw original protest event catalogues constructed local Arabic-language newspapers. argue decentralized nature paradoxically render deposing them via mass mobilization more difficult. investigate mechanisms including difficulty sustaining broad anti-regime coalition absence singular dictator, ability offer resignations without fundamentally altering underlying power structures, possibility for an array non-state semi-state repressive actors repress protests.