ANN ARBOR—Antiwar demonstrations in Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities this weekend will mark the anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq seven years ago.

While economic issues and health care reform have sapped much of the energy out of America’s peace movement, University of Michigan researchers say there is another culprit to blame for declining attendance and financial resources at antiwar rallies?the election of Democratic President Barack Obama.

“The antiwar movement demobilized as Democrats, who had been motivated to participate by anti-Republican sentiments, withdrew from antiwar protests when the Democratic Party achieved electoral success, if not policy success in ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Michael Heaney, U-M assistant professor of organizational studies and political science. “The withdrawal of Democratic activists changed the character of the antiwar movement by undermining broad coalitions in the movement and encouraging the formation of smaller, more radical coalitions.

“While the election of Barack Obama had been heralded as a victory for the antiwar movement, Obama’s election, in fact, thwarted the ability of the movement to achieve critical mass.”

Heaney and colleague Fabio Rojas, a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy at the U-M School of Public Health and an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University, have studied the consequences of partisan-driven dynamics on organizational and coalitional structures within the antiwar movement, talking to more than 8,000 antiwar protesters since 2004.

Both Heaney and Rojas will continue their research by attending and interviewing participants of this weekend’s peace protests. If interested in talking with the U-M researchers about their work, Heaney can be reached at (202) 236-3369 or [email protected] and Rojas is at (734) 615-5248 or [email protected].