ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a particular kind of post-communist social movements-mass movements against electoral autocrats. It uses the examples of Serbia and Ukraine to criticize some common assumptions about the lack of anti-regime mobilization in post-communist autocracies. The chapter looks at the basic political conditions under which Serbian and Ukrainian regime opponents had to operate. It describes protest failure in Serbia and Ukraine prior to the uprisings and reconsiders how it has been explained conventionally. The chapter presents the argument that the prime reason for the absence of powerful anti-regime movements needs to be sought in the overall political context of competitive authoritarianism. It outlines how stolen elections rather suddenly opened a road to revolution. The chapter presents the hypothesis that Eastern European social movements are dominated by rather professional groups. The most influential civil society groups in Serbia and Ukraine, Otpor and Pora, were basically grassroots movements and supported the goal of fundamental political change.
