It is wrong to assume that every transitional process to democracy follows a linear path. Using the method of within case study - process tracing, our President, Dr. Ko, showed that Iran’s Green Movement developed into a loose coalition of disparate political group comprised of liberals, reformers, moderates, moderate pragmatists, moderate conservatives, and conservatives.

To mobilize collection action in this complex and poly-vocal setting, a centrifugal force is needed to gather all players under one banner.

It will be interesting to see if the U.S. threat of targeting cultural sites in Iran will work as an overarching theme for a social movement in support of Iran’s theocratic regime.

You can read Dr. Ko’s paper entitled “Political Culture and Collective Action: Applying South Korea’s Democratization Model to Iran’s Green Movement” which was published in The Korean Journal of Area Studies in 2013.