What factors shape different levels of pro-government mobilization in authoritarian regimes? The existing literature has considered the threat of anti-regime protests as the primary driver of pro-government mobilization. While we confirm... more
What factors shape different levels of pro-government mobilization in authoritarian regimes? The existing literature has considered the threat of anti-regime protests as the primary driver of pro-government mobilization. While we confirm this finding in the literature, we argue that the regime’s organizational infrastructure significantly contributes to pro-regime mobilization. We identify places of worship, university campuses, and state bureaucracy as three main sites where states could extend their organizations for pro-government mobilization. Previous scholarship has considered universities and places of worship as free spaces for oppositional activities, but we argue that states might try to penetrate these sectors to extend their organizational reach. The statistical analyses of our original data on pro-government mobilization in Iran from 2015 to 2019 at the district level ( n = 429) provide robust support for this argument.
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The market is a kind of social system or structure that interlocks to human social life over the course of time. Indeed, in each period of human civilization, the market has shaped itself inconsistent with other social structures.... more
The market is a kind of social system or structure that interlocks to human social life over the course of time. Indeed, in each period of human civilization, the market has shaped itself inconsistent with other social structures. Therefore, people have always been in the interaction with markets in their social life. This situation facilitates internalization of market’s norms and values through a process of socialization. When social life became more complicated over the course of time, the market system also became complex to meet a new form of needs and demands. Since the dimension of human action expanded, the market expanded its dimension consistently to meet people’s desires. It means market entered to new social spheres that it could not be entered in pre-modern history, due to the simplicity of social life in which it did not let the market to expand its dimension. To put it another way, since market became a system in social life, it needs to work as a system to satisfy th...
A wave of protest swept across Iran last week. The government had abruptly hiked gas prices [1] in order to offset its budget deficit at a time of high inflation and negative economic growth. Angry protesters clashed with security forces,... more
A wave of protest swept across Iran last week. The government had abruptly hiked gas prices [1] in order to offset its budget deficit at a time of high inflation and negative economic growth. Angry protesters clashed with security forces, set government buildings and banks on fire, and blocked roads. The government responded with an iron fist [2], killing more than 200 protesters, arresting thousands, and shutting down the Internet across the country for about a week.
What factors shape different levels of pro-government mobilization in authoritarian regimes? The existing literature has considered the threat of antiregime protests as the primary driver of pro-government mobilization. While we confirm... more
What factors shape different levels of pro-government mobilization in authoritarian regimes? The existing literature has considered the threat of antiregime protests as the primary driver of pro-government mobilization. While we confirm this finding in the literature, we argue that the regime's organizational infrastructure significantly contributes to pro-regime mobilization. We identify places of worship, university campuses, and state bureaucracy as three main sites where states could extend their organizations for progovernment mobilization. Previous scholarship has considered universities and places of worship as free spaces for oppositional activities, but we argue