204 CHAPTER Six ■ The IndIvIdual
took back their country and belatedly joined the demo cratic tide that swept away the
rest of Eastern Eu rope’s communist tyrants a de cade ago.”^23
The people’s revolution in Serbia against Milošević (the Bulldozer Revolution)
proved to be a blueprint for action in other states of the post- communist world. In
Georgia, in 2003, the Rose Revolution brought a new president to power and a po liti-
cal dynasty was broken. In Ukraine in 2004, the Orange Resolution brought into
power an opposition leader, Viktor Yushchenko, who fled to Rus sia a de cade later fol-
lowing the Euromaidan Revolution, named for the central square in Kiev where the
demonstrators amassed. Although these events illustrate the power of the masses and
of mass communications, opposition elites played a key role.
In the events of the Arab Spring, although galvanized by the public action of a
Tunisian vendor, it was a group of young private citizens, led by Google executive
Wael Ghonim in late 2010, who or ga nized a Facebook and YouTube campaign, call-
ing on over 130,000 followers for the ouster of the government of President Hosni
Mubarak. They connected with human rights groups, raising the public awareness of
the average Egyptian about
governmental abuses. Col-
laborating with Mohammed
ElBaradei (former director-
general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency and
leader of an opposition po liti-
cal party), they became the
voice behind the January 25,
2011, demonstration. Ghonim
wrote, “This is Revolution 2.0.
No one was a hero because
every one was a hero.”^24
The long- term impact of
these revolutions, where the
masses played a role with elite
support, remains in doubt. In
several color- revolution states,
newly instituted reforms
have been overturned, or the
reforms weakened, and the
NGOs that they spawned
have been severely restricted.
In Iran, a mass opposition
challenging Ira nian religious
Google executive Wael Ghonim used Facebook and
YouTube to help or ga nize anti- government protests
in Egypt, demonstrating how private individuals can
harness technology to challenge elites, ultimately
leading to changes in domestic governance and
international relations.