Grievance Attribution, Mobilization and Mass Opposition to Authoritarian Regimes: Evidence from June 1953 in the GDR

Mass opposition to authoritarian governments is caused both by economic grievances and by factors which facilitate mobilization. However, themes of collective action and mobilization do not feature prominently in studies of authoritarianism and democratization. In this paper, I show how grievances and mobilization interact to produce revolution with a county-level analysis of the 17 June, 1953 uprising against the socialist dictatorship in East Germany. I find that mobilization is at least as important as economic grievances in determining unrest outcomes. Construction workers with dense communications networks were significant instigators of unrest despite average levels of economic grievances. Citizens found it easier to reveal their preferences and mobilized in revolutionary bandwagons in urban areas. Independent farmers, who harbored intense grievances attributable directly to the regime, were associated with unrest despite obstacles to mobilization. Theories of authoritarianism and regime change should engage more deeply with questions of grievance attributability and mobilization to explain revolutionary threats.