Why Civil Resistance Works

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. 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 nonviolent 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.

Auteur

Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan

Contenu

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Part I. Why Civil Resistance Works

1. The Success of Nonviolent Resistance Campaigns
2. The Primacy of Particpation 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