Concessions and Protest Demobilization

Sasha de Vogel, Jessica S. Sun, Authoritarian Politics Lab, Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, Department of Political Science, Emory University, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Comparative Political Studies

Published online on August 01, 2026

Abstract

Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
How and why do concessions, or promises to implement reform in the future, affect protest mobilization in autocracies? Concessions are a routine response to protest and generate a puzzling empirical regularity: Although autocrats often renege once protest ...