Social movements in Southeast Europe: from urban mobilisation to electoral competition

This special issue explores the role of grassroots activism and social movements in creating counter-spaces of democratic learning and resistance to authoritarianism in Southeast Europe in the 2020s. It investigates the role of social movements and new political actors on the Left in containing democratic decline as well as their attempts to strengthen democracy from below. The contributions to this special issue demonstrate how social movements, which emerged across Southeast Europe in the last decade, can be conceived as spaces of innovation resistance, and also act as important bulwarks against democratic backsliding. Furthermore, the articles delve into the factors that foster the engagement of social movement actors in electoral politics, exploring the trajectories that political parties take when they enter into the electoral arena.