Introduction

Abstract

From the year 2000, a series of mass demonstrations occurred in post-socialist Eurasian countries. Thousands of citizens took to the streets and squares, waving banners and flags, protesting against their leadership and demanding the minimum requirement of democracy: free and fair elections. Surprisingly, these protests remained non-violent and yet resulted in the fall of some autocratic leaders—while others managed to stay in power. Why did large-scale protests in some post-socialist states lead to the fall of autocratic leaders, whereas similar other regimes prevail? This study addresses the question by providing an overview of eight cases of so-called Color Revolutions, and explains factors of ‘success’ and ‘failure’ by challenging the state-of-the-art in the political science discourse on Color Revolutions. It concludes by summarizing and contextualizing the results of the analysis and highlighting open questions for political science on the theme of Color Revolutions.