“NONVIOLENCE IS FINE AS LONG AS IT WORKS” : A study of the relationship between civil society and processes of radicalization

Sammanfattning: The radicalization literature within the field of social movement research which studies the phenomenon of primarily nonviolent protests becoming primarily violent has mapped a variety of mechanisms that drive or underlie the radicalization of nonviolent resistance. To date, little attention has however been directed at the potential role of civil society influencing the trajectories of protests. This thesis aims to further explore the relationship between civil society and processes of radicalization by asking why and how civil society may influence whether spontaneous mass protests radicalize or not? I theorize that in authoritarian contexts where independent civil societies in general have limited capacity the range of such civil society in terms geographical coverage and representation of different segments and groups of society impacts a mass protest movements degree of cohesion which in turn affects the likelihood of radicalization. I hypothesize that broad civil society range facilitates for mass protests movements to maintain the nonviolent discipline. This thesis applies structured focused comparison through a comparative case study of Yemen and Syria. While I fail to find convincing support for the proposed causal mechanism, the findings suggest that broad civil society range is associated with spontaneous mass protests maintaining the nonviolent discipline.