Revolutionary burnout: subjective experiences of crisis and the demobilization of mass protest in Lebanon

Studies on the outcomes of the so-called Arab Spring have largely focused on regimes’ abilities to control or coopt contenders and thus on protest-exogenous causes of revolutionary failure. By contrast, endogenous dynamics of demobilization have remained understudied, despite growing evidence on the key role of microlevel interactions in making and breaking revolutionary momentum. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring the triangular relation between shifts in the macrostructural environment of revolutionary movements, the subjective life worlds of those affected by these shifts, and organizational dynamics on the mesolevel. Based on a combination of protest event data and narrative interviews with protagonists of the Lebanese Thawra, it aims to recentre the debate on the trajectory of revolutionary movements away from the prevalent state centrism and on the agents of change themselves: Drawing on a combination of, it is argued that complex personal meaning making processes to navigate multiple socio-political and economic crises are crucial in understanding demobilisation in Lebanon. Formerly committed activists responded to increasing uncertainty through a combination of adaptation, disengagement, and abeyance. These microlevel mechanisms translated citizens’ subjective accounts of lived events into the organizational arena of the Lebanese Thawra. By deepening rifts within contentious coalitions, undermining efforts at street mobilization, and channelling dissent into less disruptive forms of activism, they catalysed a decline of protest, described here as a slow but steady ‘revolutionary burnout’.