Understanding Protests in Authoritarian States

Authoritarian states have not been immune to the global surge of antigovernment protests. Many autocrats have faced significant challenges from the street in recent years, especially from diffuse, leaderless protest movements of the type that have confronted numerous democracies. Though protests in democratic contexts have attracted significant scrutiny, protests against authoritarian regimes have attracted less extensive analytic attention. Key questions include: How widespread are such protests? What issues usually drive them? What are the most common forms of authoritarian state response? And how frequently does mass activism provoke significant changes in authoritarian policies or leadership?