Evolutionary and Revolutionary pathways of bottom-up subnational authoritarian enclave democratization

We know that subnational authoritarian enclaves can democratize when a national level government, opposition party, an effective policy or a neighbouring country intervenes. However, we still know surprisingly little about the existence of a bottom-up pathway to subnational democratization. In this paper, I theorize two such pathways: the evolutionary and the revolutionary one. In the evolutionary pathway, social movement actors start with making covert claims. They activate a self-productive sequence that directly facilitates subnational democratization. In the revolutionary pathway, social movement actors start by making overt claims. They activate a self-destructive sequence that indirectly facilitates subnational democratization. This theory is the product of Comparative Historical Analysis of original empirical evidence that I gathered during fieldwork on two cases. I show that social movement actors took the evolutionary pathway in Isabela, the Philippines and the revolutionary pathway in Oaxaca, Mexico.