Adding insult to injury: Emotion, framing, and cognitive liberation in Georgia's Rose Revolution

This dissertation looks at popular mobilization during Georgia's Rose Revolution (November 2003). It asks why a relatively large number of people joined the movements and protests, despite the apathy and resignation that pervaded the political culture. An inductive, comparative analysis examines the responses of protestors and non-protestors, in an effort to understand what made the difference in their behavior: Why did some people become active, while others remained at home? Why did this instance of election fraud provoke such a reaction, in contrast to previous instances? While other factors were also necessary, I argue that we can only understand the popular mobilization if we look at the role emotion played in moving people to protest. In order for a sufficient number of people to join the protest movement, the old mindset of resignation and passiveness had to change. Some Georgians experienced such a change in consciousness, as they made the transition from frustrated resignation to outraged and empowered defiance. A sufficient number of people began to believe that they might have the power to cause change. I argue that this transformation, sometimes known as cognitive liberation, was possible because of emotion. This is because emotions and beliefs are intimately connected and therefore able to influence each other. They work together, in turn, to influence human behavior. In the Georgian case, one means by which emotions and beliefs impacted protest behavior was the collective action frames. In their framing work, activists appealed to people's emotions, as well as to their beliefs and values. Thanks to this framing work and its emotional component, activists were able to amplify beliefs that supported participation and transform beliefs that did not. They were able to overcome the resignation and apathy and mobilize a critical mass of people.