| Zusammenfassung: | <p>Following civil conflict peace agreements, societies often continue to experience political volatility. Cleavages that provided reasons for some society segments to seek armed action may still exist, and violence might have increased political polarization. Consequently, peace process societies often face diverse expressions of discontent, including mass protests. This raises the question of if and how demobilized armed group members behave in such protests. Are they willing to participate and use protests as a new form to articulate their interests and political demands? What implications does their participation have for protest dynamics and political stability? How does the rest of society react to such protest participation?</p>
<p>This thesis explores these questions by examining the participation of demobilized members of the FARC guerrilla group in Colombia during mass protest waves following the country's 2016 peace agreement. The thesis contains three research articles. Article 1 is theory-testing and explores through qualitative field research in Colombia, including 94 interviews, to which extent existing social movement theories explain variations in former rebels' participation during mass protests, finding that existing links to protesting communities, integration into networks of former comrades, and perceived security risks had the most influence on former rebels' mobilization decision. Building upon the same 94 interviews, Article 2 is theory-building and examines the implications of former FARC rebels' protest participation, finding that their involvement reduced violence levels, enhanced their societal reintegration, and led to a professionalization of the protests. Finally, Article 3 provides an online survey experiment to assess how the protest participation of former FARC members and alleged links to vandalism alter public opinion, finding that former rebels' involvement reduces public support for protests but that vandalism weighs heavier. The analyses speak to the social movement and demobilized rebel literature and highlight the benefits of bridging these two literature streams.</p>
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