The Wisconsin Uprising not only was the early riser of the U.S. protest wave of 2011, it was highly militant and the largest and most broadly based of those mobilizations. Nonetheless, the full meaning of Wisconsin continues to be lost to scholars and activists alike. The Wisconsin Uprising provides a classic case for studying the process and consequences of movement building, and stands for the proposition that the conscious movement building activities of activists matter. I draw on interviews and archival research as well as my personal history as a protagonist in the popular movements of Wisconsin over 25 years. I show how key elements of the Wisconsin Uprising were constructed in the greater period of struggle that began in the early 1990s, arguing that the wave of 2011 was a product of purposive actions in the course of that struggle. In so doing, I introduce a theoretical framework for explaining the trajectories and outcomes of “movements in struggle” and takes lessons for future social movement action.

This work brings constitutional studies and social movement studies together in an empirical and theoretical analysis of the relationship between constitutional change and democratization. I ask how these fields can help us explain what can be done, what democrats can do, and what democrats should do to constitutionalize democracy and democratize constitutions. I present my findings from a crossnational analysis of constitutional change and democracy (1946-2012), showing that higher rates of amendment produce greater democratization. I draw lessons from U.S. history about how human rights and democratization can be secured through movements for constitutional reform. And I examine the current trajectories of democrats in the United States, looking back to the Seattle Uprising of 1999 and three contemporaneous “movement turns” – anarchist, democratic, and global – as well as more recent developments relevant to evaluating possibilities for constitutional democratization in the U.S.A.. Each of these studies contributes to an ongoing project exploring the dynamics of constitutional revolutions and the practice of revolutionary constitutionalism.

During the Spring of 2002 and 2003, a team of faculty and institutional researchers conducted an innovative web-based survey on the undergraduate experience at all eight undergraduate campuses of the University of California. This report provides the first formal presentation of preliminary findings from that survey and discusses potential areas of relevance to policy for further research.