High-capacity authoritarian regimes can nonetheless be overturned by sustained contention.

Evidence

For the impact on regimes by bursts of struggle, the civil wars and revolutions of chapter 7 provide multiple examples over centuries of upheaval. So does the drama of South Africa in chapter 5. Against long odds, black militants and their few white allies brought down an apartheid regime that had seemed cruelly invulnerable. In 1994, long-time prisoner Nelson Mandela actually became South African president. Contentious politics sometimes fizzles and sometimes reproduces the status quo, but now and then produces profound alterations in regimes. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1335

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does South Africa’s apartheid fall exemplify subordinate-group contention producing regime change even though capacity was high — undercutting a simple capacity-determines-repertoire story?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1335
• XREF: connects to: Higher regime capacity with some democratic freedoms produces intermediate contention — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 503; High-capacity regimes route contention through government, making mobilization affect regime structure. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 664; High-capacity authoritarian regimes defeat uncoordinated protest with diffuse aims. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 374 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• High-capacity authoritarian regimes defeat uncoordinated protest with diffuse aims. #contradicts (0.85) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 374
• Higher regime capacity with some democratic freedoms produces intermediate contention #qualifies (0.80) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 503
• High-capacity authoritarian regimes confine claim-making to state limits or surveilled niches #complicates (0.80) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 427
• High-capacity regimes route contention through government, making mobilization affect regime structure. #qualifies (0.75) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 664
• Existing political institutions, not just pressure levels, shape contention. #qualifies (0.75) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 631
• Democracies are harder to build but also harder to destroy than authoritarian regimes #complicates (0.72)