His . And Im also collecting data on the nonviolent actions that are happening every day in the United States through a project called the Crowd Counting Consortium, with Jeremy Pressman of the University of Connecticut. Erica Chenoweth, Trends in Nonviolent Resistance and State Response: Is Violence Toward Civilian-Based Movements on the Rise?Global Responsibility to Protect9 (January 2017): 86100. . The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. This is most strikingly obvious with regard to outside state support for armed groups, which fell off sharply with the breakup of the Soviet Union. Entrenched regimes can cast violent skirmishers as threats to public order. These trends may have opened space for political dissent in many countries around the world.18Daniel Ritter has argued that in the postCold War world, authoritarian regimes were particularly susceptible to nonviolent challenges from below because they needed to maintain the semblance of respect for human rights in order to appease their democratic allies and patrons.19For instance, Egypts dependence on foreign assistance meant that when revolution broke out in 2011, the Egyptian military was highly attuned to scrutiny from liberal democracies such as the United States. 26. The second thing is that [the movement] needs to elicit loyalty shifts among security forces in particular, but also other elites. Freedom's Ring: King's "I Have a Dream" Speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views, King hears Mordecai Johnson preach on Gandhi, King discusses nonviolence with Bayard Rustin, Glenn Smiley interviews King in Montgomery, "Stride Toward Freedom" officially released; King signs copies at Harlem's Empire Baptist Bookstore, The Kings and Lawrence Dunbar Reddick depart for India and Middle East, King's "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence" published in Christian Century, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Evan Gerstmann,How the COVID-19 Crisis is Threatening Freedom and Democracy Across the Globe,Forbes, 12 April 2020,www.forbes.com/sites/evangerstmann/2020/04/12/how-the-covid-19-crisis-is-threatening-freedom-and-democracy-across-the-globe/#6dec63234f16. On Violence in the South: Nonviolent Protest The "civil" in "civil disobedience" is construed here to designate the willing-ness to accept the sovereignty in general of the law which is in particular disputed. "Introduce the paradigm of threat, and all of a sudden the willingness to cooperate across select group lines plummets, and that's . When an individual or group . The nonviolent resister is willing to accept violence if necessary, but never to inflict it. [CDATA[//>. Consequently, the believer in nonviolence has deep faith in the future. [1] The success is that so many people have come to believe that they can confront injustice using strategic nonviolent methods, while fewer are turning to armed action. During the boycott, King personally enacted Gandhian principles. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. It is not passive non-resistance to evil, it is active nonviolent resistance to evil. And at the end of May, thousands of Hong Kong protesters filled the streets in defiance of stay-at-home guidance to resist Beijings plans to push through a new national-security law that threatens to further tighten the mainlands grip on Hong Kong. First, it may be that more people around the world have come to see nonviolent resistance as a legitimate and successful method for creating changea factor addressed in greater detail below. There are a few possible reasons. Data are available from the author on request. Nonviolent resistance, or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, constructive program, or other methods, while refraining from violence and the threat of violence. WCFIA: In your co-authored book, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, you explain clearly why civil resistance campaigns attract more absolute numbers of people in part its because theres a much lower barrier to participation compared with picking up a weapon. True pacifism, or nonviolent resistance, King wrote, is a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love (King, Stride, 80). Historical uses of nonviolent action | War Resisters' International Even when the overwhelming majority of activists remain nonviolent, civil-resistance movements that mix in some armed violencesuch as street fighting with police or attacking counterprotesterstend to be less successful in the end than movements that remain disciplined in rejecting violence.27This is because violence tends to increase indiscriminate repression against movement participants and sympathizers while making it harder for the movement to paint participants as innocent victims of this brutality. Give yours today. I dont think that the factors that influence success or failure are fundamentally different. 16. nonviolent resistance is the only . 18. Perhaps counterintuitively, the coronavirus pandemic may have helped to address some of these underlying problems by driving movements to turn their focus back to relationship-building, grassroots organizing, strategy, and planning. One is the religious insistence that harming another person is always immoral and that loving one's enemies can transform individuals and societies. While intellectually committed to nonviolence, King did not experience the power of nonviolent direct action first-hand until the start of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. Fifth, more troublingly, people today may have new motivations to resist. Antiracism and nonviolence are methods of engaged learning and action. Jonathan C. Pinckney,From Dissent to Democracy: The Promise and Perils of Civil Resistance Transitions(New York: Oxford University Press, 2020); Markus Bayer, Felix S. Bethke, and Daniel Lambach, The Democratic Dividend of Nonviolent Resistance,Journal of Peace Research53 (November 2016): 75871; Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan,Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict(New York: Columbia University Press, 2011); Mauricio Rivera Celestino and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, Fresh Carnations or All Thorn, No Rose? The third thing is that the campaigns need to be able to have more than just protests; there needs to be a lot of variation in the methods they use. This originally appeared on the Weatherhead Center website. Authors: Erica Chenoweth Harvard University Abstract and Figures Nonviolent mass. Dr. King lived and taught these essential ingredients of active nonviolence until the day he died. That sounds like a really small number, but in absolute terms its really an impressive number of people. Based on the cases you have studied, what are the key elements necessary for a successful nonviolent campaign? Nonviolent campaigns over the past ten years have succeeded less often than their historical counterparts. A sixth basic fact about nonviolent resistance is that it is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice. He founded the Sabarmati Ashram to teach satyagraha. In 2017 and 2019, millions of people turned out to protest against Venezuelan president Nicols Maduro. 22. Those in power can harness digital technologies to monitor, single out, and suppress dissidents. And, if there is a victory, it will be a victory not merely for fifty thousand Negroes, but a victory for justice and the forces of light. 19. In 1950, as a student at Crozer Theological Seminary, King heard a talk by Dr. Mordecai Johnson, president of Howard University. Third, movements that do not rely solely on digital organizing techniques are more likely to build a sustainable following. The willingness of the regime to use violence will increase the likelihood for success among nonviolent campaigns, but disadvantage violent campaigns. Accessed 03 Jun. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. But the weakest can partake in it without becoming weaker. That argument may have some merit. 13. Autocrats have also exploited digital technologies not only to rally their own supporters, but also to spread misinformation, propaganda, and countermessaging. 5. Perhaps counterintuitively, the coronavirus pandemic may have helped to address some of these underlying problems by driving movements to turn their focus back to relationship-building, grassroots organizing, strategy, and developing narratives that resonate with a captive audience. WCFIA: You make the surprising claim that even when they fail, civil resistance campaigns often lead to longer-term reforms than violent campaigns do. In 2011, the U.S.-backed government of Bahrain crushed a nonviolent movement that tried to challenge the monarchy there. For example, over the period 19002019, analysts have identified a total of 628 maximalist mass campaigns (those that seek to remove the incumbent national leadership from power or create territorial independence[End Page 70]through secession or the expulsion of a foreign military occupation or colonial power).2Although liberation movements are often depicted as bands of gun-wielding rebels, fewer than half these campaigns (303) involved organized armed resistance. Why are they effective? the resistor is willing to accept violence if necessary, but never to inflict it. Recent research suggests that nonviolent civil resistance is far more successful in creating broad-based change than violent campaigns are, a somewhat surprising finding with a story behind it. Armed struggle used to be the primary way in which movements fought for change from outside the political system. CHENOWETH: The finding is that civil resistance campaigns often lead to longer-term reforms and changes that bring about democratization compared with violent campaigns. When Erica Chenowethstarted her predoctoral fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in 2006, she believed in the strategic logic of armed resistance. Weeks later, Algerias president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was seeking an unconstitutional fifth term in office, also fell, toppled by a popular uprising known as the Smile Revolution. 6. This kind of commitment is easiest to maintain in an interpersonal context of equal power and shared willingness to engage in collaborative processes. Second, new information technology is making it easier to learn about events that previously went unreported.5As internet access expands, more and more people are consuming news online via newspaper websites, social media, private chatrooms, and more. Nonviolent Resistance: A Force More Powerful - Center for Action and . . 15. There is reason for hope in this regard. Movements future capacity to build people power from below depends on how they invest their time and resources during the global shutdown. Fifth, nonviolent resistance avoids external physical violence and internal violence of spirit as well: The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him (King, Stride, 85). Linda Herrera,Revolution in the Age of Social Media: The Egyptian Popular Insurrection and the Internet(London: Verso, 2014). For more detail and some additional hypotheses, see Maciej Bartkowski, ed. It began in 2017, when Jeremy and I were collecting data during the Womens March. It might be jarring when a complete stranger pulls up his shirt while youre trying to eat dinner. More than 250 forms of nonviolent direct action have been identified, including marches, boycotts, picketing, sit-ins and prayer vigils, to name a few. The main culprit for this has been changes in the structure and capabilities of these movements themselves. Graff for editorial assistance. Principles of Nonviolent Resistance By Martin Luther King Jr. 28. In her book, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, Harvard Professor Erica Chenoweth explains why civil resistance campaigns attract more absolute numbers of people. (For an excellent commentary on them, I recommend Roots of Resistance: The Nonviolent Ethic. Europe, North and South America, and Asiahave also repeatedly shown their willingness to pour into the streets to demand change, or simply express their . do not condone violence against "opponents," nonviolent activism often relies on displaying the proponents' willingness to endure the risks of being harmed, injured or even killed by the opponent. A fifth point concerning nonviolent resistance is that it avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. Learn - Resource Center for Nonviolence