Mobilizing for Democracy is an in-depth study into how ordinary citizens and their organizations mobilize to deepen democracy. Featuring a collection of new empirical case studies from Angola, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, this important new book illustrates how forms of political mobilization, such as protests, social participation, activism, litigation and lobbying, engage with the formal institutions of representative democracy in ways that are core to the development of democratic politics.

No other volume has brought together examples from such a broad Southern spectrum and covering such a diversity of actors: rural and urban dwellers, transnational activists, religious groups, politicians and social leaders. The cases illuminate the crucial contribution that citizen mobilization makes to democratization and the building of state institutions, and reflect the uneasy relationship between citizens and the institutions that are designed to foster their political participation.

Vera Schattan Coelho is a research fellow at Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP, the Brazilian Centre for Analysis and Planning), where she coordinates the Citizenship and Development Group. A Brazilian political scientist, she has written widely on issues of participation and social policy in Latin America. She serves as co-convenor of the Deepening Democracy working group of the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability.

Bettina von Lieres is a Senior Lecturer in the Political Studies Department at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa, and also teaches at the University of Toronto. A South African political scientist, she has written widely on issues of democracy, citizenship and marginalisation. She serves as co-convenor of the Deepening Democracy subgroup of the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability.
Vera Schattan Coelho is a research fellow at Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP, the Brazilian Centre for Analysis and Planning), where she coordinates the Citizenship and Development Group. A Brazilian political scientist, she has written widely on issues of participation and social policy in Latin America. She serves as co-convenor of the Deepening Democracy working group of the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability.

Bettina von Lieres is a Senior Lecturer in the Political Studies Department at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa, and also teaches at the University of Toronto. A South African political scientist, she has written widely on issues of democracy, citizenship and marginalisation. She serves as co-convenor of the Deepening Democracy subgroup of the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability.