The communist world was supposed to have had its ‘revolution’ in 1989. But the demise of the Soviet Union came two years later, at the end of 1991; and then, perplexingly, a series of irregular executive changes began to take place the following decade in countries that were already postcommunist. The focus in this collection is the changes that took place in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan between 2000 and 2005 that have together been called the ‘coloured revolutions’: of no particular colour in Serbia, but Rose in Georgia, Orange in Ukraine and Tulip in Kyrgyzstan. Apart from exploring political change in the ‘coloured revolution’ countries themselves, the contributors to this collection focus on countries that did not experience this kind of irregular executive change but which might otherwise be comparable (Belarus and Kazakhstan among them), and on reactions to ‘democracy promotion’ in Russia and China. Throughout, an effort is made to avoid taking the ‘coloured revolutions’ at face value, however they may have been presented by local leaders and foreign governments with their own agendas; and to place them within the wider literature of comparative politics. This book was previously published as a special issue of Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.

This edited collection offers a timely and original perspective on the many upheavals and revolutions that broke out across the world during the earlytwentieth century. With previous research tending to confine revolutions within national borders, this book sets out to place them within a broader global sphere of thought and action. The authors explore the time phase between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the Asturian Revolution of 1934, including cases from South Africa, Australia, China, the Middle East and Latin America. Providing insights from leading scholars in the field, this collection highlights the interconnectedness and transnationalism of upheavals and revolutions, offering a new approach which integrates political, social and cultural history. Chapter 8 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via Link.springer.com

Revolutions are distinguished by differences in processes, as well as outcomes. By separating revolutionary processes into distinct components, we can distinguish varied types by the sequence and combination in which particular components appear. In particular, the 'color' revolutions in recent years show a distinct pattern of unfolding. However, this is not entirely novel - these events share many feature with other revolutions that had previously been considered anomalous, such as the American Revolution, and the British 'Glorious' Revolution of 1688.

In the last twenty years, scholars have rushed to re-examine revolutionary experiences across the Atlantic, through the Americas, and, more recently, in imperial and global contexts. While Revolution has been a perennial favourite topic of national historians, a new generation of historians has begun to eschew traditional foundation narratives and embrace the insights of Atlantic and transnational history to re-examine what is increasingly called ‘the Age of Revolution’. This volume raises important questions about this new turn, and contributors pay particular attention to the hidden peoples and forces at work in this Revolutionary world. From Indian insurgents in Columbia and the Andes, to the terror exercised on the sailors and soldiers of imperial armies, and from Dutch radicals to Senegalese chiefs, these contributions reveal a new social history of the Age of Revolution that has sometimes been deliberately obscured from view. This book was originally published as a special issue of Atlantic Studies.

This book explores the origins and effects, successes and failures of "colour revolutions" in the former Soviet Republics - the non-violent protests which succeeded in overthrowing post-communist authoritarian regimes, for example in Georgia in 2003, Ukraine in 2004 and Kyrgyzstan in 2005.

Americans remember the Civil War for its unsparing brutality. But was our fight for independence even worse?

How elections are reported has important implications for the health of democracy and informed citizenship. But, how informative are the news media during campaigns? What kind of logic do they follow? How well do they serve citizens?e Based on original research as well as the most comprehensive assessment of election studies to date, Cushion and Thomas examine how campaigns are reported in many advanced Western democracies. In doing so, they engage with debates about the mediatization of politics, media systems, information environments, media ownership, regulation, political news, horserace journalism, objectivity, impartiality, agenda-setting, and the relationship between media and democracy more generally. Focusing on the most recent US and UK election campaigns, they consider how the logic of election coverage could be rethought in ways that better serve the democratic needs of citizens. Above all, they argue that election reporting should be driven by a public logic, where the agenda of voters takes centre stage in the campaign and the policies of respective political parties receive more airtime and independent scrutiny. The book is essential reading for scholars and students in political communication and journalism studies, political science, media and communication studies.

In this important book, leading scholar Alex Dupuy provides a critical reinterpretation of the Haitian Revolution and its aftermath. Dupuy evaluates the French colonial context of Saint-Domingue and then Haiti, the achievements and limitations of the revolution, and the divisions in the Haitian ruling class that blocked meaningful economic and political development. He reconsiders the link between slavery and modern capitalism; refutes the argument that Hegel derived his master-slave dialectic from the Haitian Revolution; analyzes the consequences of new class and color divisions after independence; and convincingly explains why Haiti chose to pay an indemnity to France in return for its recognition of Haiti’s independence. In his sophisticated analysis of race, class, and slavery, Dupuy provides a robust theoretical framework for conceptualizing and understanding these major themes.

Between 2000 and 2005, colour revolutions swept away authoritarian and semi-authoritarian regimes in Serbia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. Yet, after these initial successes, attempts to replicate the strategies failed to produce regime change elsewhere in the region. The book argues that students of democratization and democracy promotion should study not only the successful colour revolutions, but also the colour revolution prevention strategies adopted by authoritarian elites. Based on a series of qualitative, country-focused studies the book explores the whole spectrum of anti-democratization policies, adopted by autocratic rulers and demonstrates that authoritarian regimes studied democracy promotion techniques, used in various colour revolutions, and focused their prevention strategies on combatting these techniques. The book proposes a new typology of authoritarian reactions to the challenge of democratization and argues that the specific mix of policies and rhetoric, adopted by each authoritarian regime, depended on the perceived intensity of threat to regime survival and the regime’s perceived strength vis-à-vis the democratic opposition. This book was published as a special issue of Democratization.