A dissertation presented to the Facilty of the Graduate School of Yale University in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. This dissertation presents an actor-oriented theory of transtions from authoritarian rule and tests it on the case of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa between 1966 and 1979. It begins by critiquing prevailing structuralist theories of regime change as reductionist, economistic, and elitist. It suggests an alternative based on collective actors and discourse, focused on three casual factors - oppositional social movements, changing state-society relations, and civil society institutions - which politicize collective identity and arouse mass mobilization, creating regime crises.