The protests in the Middle East present a unique opportunity to study and refine the literature on authoritarian regime classification as well as the broader assumptions made about the relationship between state and society in Middle Eastern states. In order to gauge the manner in which authoritarian leaders reproduce themselves, we will examine the politics of the protesters in Syria. We have collected data on the themes and messages of the protests in order to test whether their grievances and demands are centered on universal themes such as pluralism, citizenship, equality and rule of law, for example. Or, are the protesters “engaging the authoritarian state?” We question whether the protesters in these countries are entering into a discourse with the existing regimes to address the specific authoritarian strategies of each state. Are protesters keen to pinpoint the specific policies, identity constructions and tactics used by the state in question? By addressing the issue of reception (how ordinary people receive, internalize and react to signals by the state), we hope to learn something about regime-types and the corresponding strategies in place to ensure their political survival. Since there has been a scarcity of collective, bottom-up resistance movements, we have never been able to present the position of the citizens in reaction to their leaders' survival strategies. Through informal politics, there is strong evidence that individuals in these states have transgressed and evaded regime censors, but the collective themes and symbols of resistance have never been catalogued. The answers to these questions will help us gauge how much weight should be placed on specifying differences based on regime-type. We would like to explore the degree to which the protests are shaped by the authoritarian structures and tactics in a given state. This will help us begin to question whether regime survival strategies of the past have mounted to meaningless propaganda or whether they more closely shape the form and nature of protest.