Abstract
Since 1989 multiple diffusion waves of social movements and political mobilization have spread through the former Soviet bloc. While in the early 1990s there was a noticeable effort to assist nascent civil societies in the region with support for social movement organizations (SMOs) provided by private and public sector donors from the US and individual West European countries, the lead role in this was taken over later on by the European Union (EU).
There were consequences to this shift that have been documented in the available research. However, assistance to the region did not just come from the West.
In the late 1990s, the model of anti-authoritarian mobilization that was first successfully applied in Slovakia and Serbia spread through the region in the form of electoral, or so-called colored, revolutions. And it was not only big events, such as democratization and revolutions, which led to diffusion processes.
Many social movements, such as the environmentalist, feminist, anarchist, and anti-globalist movements, deployed cultural schemes, action repertoires, information, and resources that had spread from previously unconnected social sites. And these processes were not just limited to progressive movements.
Anti-gender, anti-LGBT and generally radical right organizations have been utilizing the mobilization methodologies of their 'brothers-in-arms' in other countries since the 1990s, and this trend has only intensified in recent times.