The World Says No to War.

This study aims first, to expand our understanding of what happened on the day of February 15, 2003 when there were worldwide protests against the imminent Iraq War who took to the street, why they went, and how such a protest event resulted in mobilizing as large a crowd as it evidently did. And a second, but more important objective was to improve the general understanding of protest events in a comparative perspective how mobilization patterns affect the composition of protest events, what is the relationship between social movement infrastructures and the types of protesters that take to the streets, what determines a protest's dominant mobilization pattern, how and why do people initially participate, and the role of the internet in persuading people to participate. Explored is the diversity in such aspects as protest cultures, public opinions, systems of interest mediation, and the involvement in or of political institutions..