Why civil resistance works The strategic logic of nonviolent conflict

Erica Chenoweth, 1980-

Book - 2011

For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals. By attracting impressive support from citizens, whose activism takes the form of protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, and other forms of nonviolent noncooperation, these efforts help separate regimes from their main sources of power and produce remarkable results, even in Iran, Burma, the Philippines, and the Palestinian Territories. Combining statistical analysis with case studies of specific countries and territories, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan detail the factors enabling such campaigns to succeed and, sometimes, causing them to fail. They find that non...violent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement and commitment, and that higher levels of participation contribute to enhanced resilience, greater opportunities for tactical innovation and civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for a regime to maintain its status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents' erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment. Chenoweth and Stephan conclude that successful nonviolent resistance ushers in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, they originally and systematically compare violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and that it is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, the authors discover, violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds.

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Subjects
Published
New York : Columbia University Press ©2011.
Language
English
Main Author
Erica Chenoweth, 1980- (-)
Other Authors
Maria J. Stephan (-)
Physical Description
xvii, 296 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-278) and index.
ISBN
9780231156820
9780231527484
9780231156837
  • List of illustrations
  • List of Tables
  • Acknowledgements
  • Part I. Why Civil Resistance Works
  • One. The Success of Nonviolent Resistance Campaigns
  • 2. The Primacy of Participation in Nonviolent Resistance
  • 3. Exploring Alternative Explanations for the Success of Civil Resistance
  • Part II. Case Studies
  • Introduction to the Case Studies
  • 4. The Iranian Revolution, 1977-1979
  • 5. The First Palestinian Intifada, 1987-1992
  • 6. The Philippine People Power Movement, 1983-1986
  • 7. Why Civil Resistance Sometimes Fails: the Burmese Uprising, 1988-1990
  • Case study summary
  • Part III. The Implications of Civil Resistance
  • 8. After the Campaign: The Consequences of Violent and Nonviolent Resistance
  • 9. Conclusion
  • Epilogue
  • Appendix
  • Notes
  • References
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

Chenoweth (Wesleyan Univ.) and Stephan (US Department of State) argue that campaigns of nonviolent resistance have a record of being more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts. Combining statistical analysis and extensive case studies of specific countries, they detail the factors that enable the nonviolent campaigns to succeed, as well as factors that sometimes to cause them to fail. However, they point out the added benefit that nonviolent movements lead to a more durable and more democratic outcome. The case studies focus on the Iranian Revolution, 1977-79; the First Palestinian Intifada, 1987-92; the Philippine People Power Movement, 1983-86; and the Burmese Uprising, 1988-90. Buttressed by an appendix, extensive notes, and an impressive bibliography, the authors put forward a strong argument that nonviolence is preferable, more likely to succeed, and much less costly than violent resistance movements. The work belongs in all academic libraries. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. J. A. Rhodes Luther College

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.